Project information
Proteomic Profiling and Functional Analysis of Extracellular Vesicles with Distinct Surface Molecule Signatures

Head and neck cancer is among the leading solid cancers worldwide with high mortality rate, primarily due to late detection. This delay in diagnosis calls for the urgent need of effective screening methods and valid biomarkers. One promising area of research is represented by extracellular vesicles (EVs). These nanosized membrane-bound vesicles that carry various signalling biomolecules are secreted by most of the cells of the human body and can be found in all body fluids. The heterogeneity of EVs in their size, biogenesis, molecular content, and diverse surface markers allows them to exert particular signalling functions in specific biological processes, including cancer progression. With a focus on specific surface markers, such as EpCAM, CD63, or phosphatidylserine, we can track these diverse populations of EVs and enhance the diagnostic accuracy of head and neck cancer and offer potential personalized treatment strategies in the future.

Since diverse molecular patterns on the surface of EVs indicate differences in the mechanism of EV production, it naturally points to the hypothesis that proteomes would vary between EVs with those surface molecules. Precise recognition of these EV surface molecules can help us to understand the role of different EV subpopulations in specific biological processes not only within the tumor microenvironment. For instance, phosphatidylserine is well known „eat me“ signal for macrophages, thus modulating immune system upon recognition, which can be critical for cancer progression. Furthermore, EpCAM is a surface molecule commonly upregulated on the surface of cancer cells, including head and neck cancer, and also modulates EV biogenesis and cargo sorting. We believe that choosing the study of the proteome of the aforementioned EV populations will follow the need of finding relevant biomarkers of the disease.