The prognostic roles of mRNAs of the exosomes derived from bone marrow stromal cells in common malignancies: a bioinformatic study.

Background: The inclusion of exosomes enters the recipient cells by means of endocytosis or direct fusion for information exchange between cells and cells. The inclusion of BMSCs-exo helps to guide the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer, especially cancer.

Purpose: This research was to systematically elucidate the prognostic value of mRNAs of the exosomes derived from bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) in common malignant neoplasms, such as breast cancer, ovarian cancer, lung cancer, and gastric cancer.

Methods: Gene expression data (GSE78235) for the exosomes derived from BMSCs were extracted from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Firstly, the differentially expressed genes were detected by comparing the RNA expression from exosomes derived from BMSCs between four tumor patients and two healthy controls using the limma package. Subsequently, functional enrichment analysis, including Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes of differentially expressed genes, was performed using the Functional Enrichment analysis tool (FunRich v3.1.3) software followed by the construction of a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network via STRING v3.6.0. Molecular Complex Detection was used to screen the hub proteins by setting up the following threshold score ≥4 and nodes ≥10. Cytoscape v3.6.1 was used to for visualizing PPI network. Finally, Kaplan-Meier analysis for hub proteins was performed by Kaplan-Meier plotter online platform.

Results: A total of 386 genes originating from the exosomes derived from BMSCs were identifed as statistically signifcant ( < 0.05, FDR <0.05), which consisted of 150 upregulated genes and 236 downregulated genes. Also, 32 pathways were identifed as signifcant ( < 0.05, FDR < 0.05). The PPI network of exosomes derived from BMSC proteins included 100 protein nodes with 579 interaction edges. The hub proteins, including PODN, ZNF521, and CFI, which interacted with ten or more other proteins, were indicated as the hub proteins of PPN of exosomes derived from BMSCs.

Conclusion: Taken together, our findings revealed the prognostic roles of mRNAs of exosomes derived from BMSCs and provided implications for targeted therapy for common malignant neoplasms. However, further studies require large samples and experimental verification.