Exosomes and ferroptosis: roles in tumour regulation and new cancer therapies

Yixin Shi; Bingrun Qiu; Linyang Huang; Jie Lin; Yiling Li; Yiting Ze; Chenglong Huang; Yang Yao

doi:10.7717/peerj.13238

Exosomes and ferroptosis: roles in tumour regulation and new cancer therapies

PeerJ. 2022 Apr 26:10:e13238. doi: 10.7717/peerj.13238. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yixin Shi¹, Bingrun Qiu¹, Linyang Huang¹, Jie Lin¹, Yiling Li¹, Yiting Ze¹, Chenglong Huang², Yang Yao¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Department of Oral Implantology, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
² Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, The Affiliated Stomatology Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China.

Abstract

Research on the biological role of exosomes is rapidly developing, and recent evidence suggests that exosomal effects involve ferroptosis. Exosomes derived from different tissues inhibit ferroptosis, which increases tumour cell chemoresistance. Therefore, exosome-mediated regulation of ferroptosis may be leveraged to design anticancer drugs. This review discusses three pathways of exosome-mediated inhibition of ferroptosis: (1) the Fenton reaction; (2) the ferroptosis defence system, including the Xc-GSH-GPX4 axis and the FSP1/CoQ₁₀/NAD(P)H axis; and (3) lipid peroxidation. We also summarize three recent approaches for combining exosomes and ferroptosis in oncology therapy: (1) promoting exosome-inhibited ferroptosis to enhance chemotherapy; (2) encapsulating exosomes with ferroptosis inducers to inhibit cancers; and (3) developing therapies that combine exosomal inhibitors and ferroptosis inducers. This review will contribute toward establishing effective cancer therapies.

Keywords: Cancer therapies; Exosomes; Ferroptosis; Tumour regulation.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Antineoplastic Agents* / pharmacology
Exosomes* / pathology
Ferroptosis*
Humans
Lipid Peroxidation
Neoplasms* / drug therapy

Substances

Antineoplastic Agents

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Key Research and Development projects in the Sichuan Province (No. 2020YFS0172), the Strategic Cooperation Special Project Sichuan University & Luzhou City (No. 2021CDLZ-8), The National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Science Foundation Project (No. 81700941). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.