Environmental impact on the secretion of tumor-derived exosomes

Cancer continues to be one of the most prominent and devastating health issues in the world. In the year 2024, an estimated 2,001,140 new cases of cancer were be diagnosed in the United States alone. Of those over 2 million cases, 611,720 people will die from the disease (National Cancer Institute). Our goal is to utilize the basic progression and anatomy of a cancer tumor to help address this horrible disease that takes the lives of so many. Exosomal research is a new field that utilizes proteins, DNA, and RNA from secreted extracellular vesicles to determine tumor characteristics and optimize treatment strategies. While this innovative technique holds promise, the relationship between exosomes and their associated parent cells remains inadequately understood. This research intends to bridge the gap in knowledge by investigating the relationship between the environmental conditions of the parent cell and the secreted exosome characteristics. These characteristics include protein content, types, and the exosome-to-cell ratio. It has been stated in previous literature that cells under more stressful environmental conditions, such as serum starvation and hypoxia, will secrete more exosomes. However, we believe the secretion of exosomes is dependent on cell line and environment. A variety of cell lines that make up a gastrointestinal tumor, including Jurkat, THP-1, MRC5, HUVEC, and AGS cells, were grown and put under these conditions to have their associated exosomes analyzed. This approach enabled us to investigate the impact of serum starvation and hypoxia, showing that low nutrition from media led to a decrease in the number of exosomes, while increased hypoxic conditions led to an increase in secretion. This knowledge can have broad implications for cancer diagnosis and innovative treatment strategies. Our research holds the potential to unveil insights into the intricate interplay between exosomes and cancer, contributing to more effective therapeutic approaches.