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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Dec 15, 2021; 13(12): 1981-1996
Published online Dec 15, 2021. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v13.i12.1981
Mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes for gastrointestinal cancer
Lin-Xian Zhao, Kai Zhang, Bing-Bing Shen, Jian-Nan Li
Lin-Xian Zhao, Kai Zhang, Jian-Nan Li, Department of General Surgery, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130041, Jilin Province, China
Bing-Bing Shen, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430060, Hubei Province, China
Author contributions: Zhao LX wrote the paper; Zhang K and Shen BB collected the data; Li JN designed the review and revised the paper; Zhao LX, Zhang K, Shen BB, and Li JN performed the approval of final revision; Zhao LX and Zhang K contributed equally to this work.
Supported by Science and Technology Development Project of Jilin Province, No. 3D5197434429; and Youth Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 3A4205367429.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest for this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jian-Nan Li, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of General Surgery, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, No. 218 Ziqiang Street, Changchun 130041, Jilin Province, China. jnli@ciac.ac.cn
Received: April 29, 2021
Peer-review started: April 29, 2021
First decision: June 5, 2021
Revised: August 15, 2021
Accepted: September 8, 2021
Article in press: September 8, 2021
Published online: December 15, 2021
Processing time: 229 Days and 21.6 Hours
Abstract

Gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies, a series of malignant conditions originating from the digestive system, include gastric cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreatic cancer, and colorectal cancer. GI cancers have been regarded as the leading cancer-related cause of death in recent years. Therefore, it is essential to develop effective treatment strategies for GI malignancies. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), a type of distinct non-hematopoietic stem cells and an important component of the tumor microenvironment, play important roles in regulating GI cancer development and progression through multiple mechanisms, such as secreting cytokines and direct interactions. Currently, studies are focusing on the anti-cancer effect of MSCs on GI malignancies. However, the effects and functional mechanisms of MSC-derived exosomes on GI cancer are less studied. MSC-derived exosomes can regulate GI tumor growth, drug response, metastasis, and invasion through transplanting proteins and miRNA to tumor cells to activate the specific signal pathway. Besides, the MSC-derived exosomes are also seen as an important drug delivery system and have shown potential in anti-cancer treatment. This study aims to summarize the effect and biological functions of MSC-derived exosomes on the development of GI cancers and discuss their possible clinical applications for the treatment of GI malignancies.

Keywords: Mesenchymal stem cells; Exosomes; Gastrointestinal cancer; Cancer treatment; Drug delivery system; Transplanting miRNA

Core Tip: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have shown potential for anti-cancer therapy. As an important content of MSCs, MSC-derived exosomes are attracting more and more researchers for anti-cancer studies. We herein summarize the effect of MSC-derived exosomes on gastrointestinal malignancies and discuss their therapeutic potential.