Dissecting the role of the P2X7 receptor in vesicles-mediated intercellular communication of colon carcinoma

Abstract:

Extracellular vesicles (EV) play an oncogenic role in tumor-stromal crosstalk, immune evasion, metastasis, and drug resistance. However, the mechanisms underlying their increased biogenesis in cancer remain unclear, posing a challenge for targeted therapeutic interventions. The tumor microenvironment (TME) is enriched in extracellular ATP (eATP), a nucleotide that we recently demonstrated can trigger the release of a particular subset of EV by activating the P2X7 receptor: P2X7-VS. P2X7-VS include various subpopulations (e.g., microvesicles, exosomes, mitovesicles) and exhibit unique molecular content compared to spontaneousl yreleased EV.