Fig. 4

Extracellular vesicle biogenesis and cargo. (a) The schematic illustrates the synthesis of EVs (via endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) dependent or independent pathway), inside the cell that begins by inward budding of the plasma membrane. Early endosomes formed to take up cytoplasmic cargo that includes biomolecules like DNA, RNA, and proteins that play a role in cell-to-cell communication. Multivesicular bodies, thus, formed containing a wide variety of cellular cargo, soon merge with plasma membrane releasing EVs. Cell-specific surface antigens are known to be tagged along in certain cases while EVs emerge from a cell. (b) The figure depicts the wide array of biomolecular cargo (both internalized and surface bearing) that EVs carry and exploited as markers in the characterization of tumors. Tumor derived EVs bearing numerous markers (as depicted) provide efficient noninvasive ways of LBs that offer real-time monitoring of tumor progression and treatment