Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Oct 27, 2020; 12(10): 407-424
Published online Oct 27, 2020. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v12.i10.407
Exosomal noncoding RNAs in cholangiocarcinoma: Laboratory noise or hope?
Konstantinos Laschos, Dimitra Ioanna Lampropoulou, Gerasimos Aravantinos, Maria Piperis, Dimitrios Filippou, George Theodoropoulos, Maria Gazouli
Konstantinos Laschos, Dimitra Ioanna Lampropoulou, Gerasimos Aravantinos, Second Department of Medical Oncology, General Oncology Hospital of Kifissia “Agioi Anargiroi”, Athens 14564, Greece
Maria Piperis, Radiation Therapy Department, Iatropolis, Athens 15231, Greece
Dimitrios Filippou, Department of Anatomy and Surgical Anatomy, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 11527, Greece
George Theodoropoulos, 1st Propaedeutic University Surgery Clinic, Hippocratio General Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 11527, Greece
Maria Gazouli, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Laboratory of Biology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 11527, Greece
Author contributions: Laschos K and Lampropoulou DI performed the majority of the writing and prepared the figures and tables; Piperis M made critical revisions and writing; Aravantinos G, Filippou D and Theodoropoulos G provided substantial contributions to the conception and design of the study and made critical revisions; Gazouli M conceived the study, made critical revisions and provided final approval of the final version of the manuscript to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict of interest to declare.
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: Maria Gazouli, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Laboratory of Biology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Michalakopoulou 176, Athens 11527, Greece. mgazouli@med.uoa.gr
Received: July 29, 2020
Peer-review started: July 29, 2020
First decision: August 9, 2020
Revised: August 19, 2020
Accepted: September 14, 2020
Article in press: September 14, 2020
Published online: October 27, 2020
Abstract

Currently, extracellular vesicles and particularly exosomes have gained a lot of research interest due to their unique roles in several biological processes. Noncoding RNAs (microRNAs, long noncoding RNAs and circular RNAs) represent a class of functional RNA with distinct regulatory roles in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. Cholangiocarcinoma is a rare but highly aggressive type of malignancy that is very challenging to diagnose, especially in early stages; surgical resection still represents the sole potentially curative treatment option. Hence, there is an urgent need for the discovery of novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. Hereby, we provide a comprehensive review of the most recent discoveries that focus on exosomal noncoding RNAs in cholangio-carcinoma with the aim to identify new molecular players that could be used as biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

Keywords: Cholangiocarcinoma, Long noncoding RNAs, MicroRNAs, Circular RNAs, Piwi-interacting RNAs, Exosomes, Extracellular vesicles

Core Tip: Although there are currently several original research studies investigating the role of noncoding RNAs in cholangiocarcinoma, very few have focused specifically on exosomal noncoding RNA signatures. This is the first review to summarize and report current data regarding exosomal noncoding RNAs in cholangiocarcinoma and discuss their potential future clinical applications.