Distinct mRNAs in Cancer Extracellular Vesicles Activate Angiogenesis and Alter Transcriptome of Vascular Endothelial Cells

Abstract

Cancer-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been demonstrated to be implicated in various processes of cancer development, with most of the EV-induced changes attributed to EV-proteins and EV-microRNAs. However, the knowledge about the abundance of cancer EV-mRNAs and their contribution to cancer development remain elusive. Here, we show that mRNAs prevail in cancer EVs as compared with normal EVs, and cancer EVs that carry abundant angiogenic mRNAs activate angiogenesis in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Specifically, of a gene panel comprising 61 hypoxia-targeted oncogenes, a larger proportion is harbored by cancer EVs (>40%) than normal EVs (14.8%). Fluorescent trafficking indicates cancer EVs deliver translatable mRNAs such as VEGFA to HUVECs, contributing to the activation of VEGFR-dependent angiogenesis and the upregulation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition-related and metabolism-related genes. Overall, our findings provide novel insights into EV-mRNAs and their role in angiogenesis, and has potential for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Keywords

• extracellular vesicles
• messenger RNA
• cancer biomarker
• hypoxia
• tumor microenvironment
• angiogenesis