Tumor-derived exosomal miR-3157-3p promotes angiogenesis, vascular permeability and metastasis by targeting TIMP/KLF2 in non-small cell lung cancer

• Main Authors: Zijian Ma, Ke Wei, Fengming Yang, Zizhang Guo, Chunfeng Pan, Yaozhou He, Jun Wang, Zhihua Li, Liang Chen, YiJiang Chen, Yang Xia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2021-09-01
• Series: Cell Death and Disease
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41419-021-04037-4

Abstract Metastasis is the main cause of death in patients with advanced lung cancer. The exosomes released by cancer cells create tumor microenvironment, and then accelerate tumor metastasis. Cancer-derived exosomes are considered to be the main driving force for metastasis niche formation at foreign sites, but the mechanism in Non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) is unclear. In metastatic NSCLC patients, the expression level of miR-3157-3p in circulating exosomes was significantly higher than that of non-metastatic NSCLC patients. Here, we found that miR-3157-3p can be transferred from NSCLC cells to vascular endothelial cells through exosomes. Our work indicates that exosome miR-3157-3p is involved in the formation of pre-metastatic niche formation before tumor metastasis and may be used as a blood-based biomarker for NSCLC metastasis. Exosome miR-3157-3p has regulated the expression of VEGF/MMP2/MMP9 and occludin in endothelial cells by targeting TIMP/KLF2, thereby promoted angiogenesis and increased vascular permeability. In addition, exosome miR-3157-3p promoted the metastasis of NSCLC in vivo.