THEME: "Novel solutions to the greatest challenges in Breast and Women's Cancer"
Adnan Menderes University, School of Medicine, Aydin, Turkey
Title: Should exosomes be used in diagnosis or treatment in gynecological cancers?
Ozge Cevik is a
Professor at the School of Medicine, Adnan Menderes University in Turkey. Dr.
Cevik completed her bachelor, master and PhD in pharmaceutical biochemistry in
health sciences at the University of Marmara. She completed postdoctoral
research at Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Rutgers New
Jersey Medical School in the USA. her research program has focused on
cancer targeted therapy, exosomes in cancer mechanism, and her research group
currently studies molecular mechanism(s) and anti-cancer gene therapy for
targeting cancer stem cells, recombinant protein productions for cancer
vaccine. her studies on innovative drug research and biomarkers have
been published in international high-impact, important molecular biochemistry
and medicinal chemistry journals.
Exosomes are the smallest of the vesicles
released from cells. Although it is known that it comes from many additional
sources in circulation, the number of cancer patients is increasing, and they
have a role in metastasis to cells. The secretion of exosomes in gynecological
cancers may differ in terms of spread and distribution. If exosomes are made
functional after being obtained from different sources, they can sometimes even
be used in therapy. Our study isolated mesenchymal stem cell-derived (MSC-Exo) and
cancer cell-derived exosomes (HeLa-Exo). We examined the structure and size and
loaded taxane group anti-cancer drugs. We used docetaxel and paclitaxel in the
drugs we loaded and incubated HeLa cervical cancer cells in exosomes over time.
The number of MSC-Exo is less than the cells released from HeLa-Exo. However,
MSC-Exo is larger in size and drug loading capacity than HeLa-Exo. When the
apoptotic effects of cells are examined, drugs given in exosomes are more
effective at lower doses than docetaxel and paclitaxel given alone. As a
result, using both mesenchymal stem cells and cancer cell-derived exosomes is
safe according to in vitro results regarding drug transport and reaching target
cells in gynecological cancers. For clinics, these results will contribute to
the development of new treatments