Extracellular Vesicles Profiling in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cell Lines: A Proteomic Characterization

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) express features of parental cells and are fundamental in modulating the crosstalk between cancer cells and their environment. Increasing evidence suggests that EVs have a pivotal role in tumorigenesis, cancer development, and drug resistance. EVs are also involved in controlling the communication between hematopoietic stem cells and the surrounding microenvironment in the bone marrow (BM), during several processes such as self-renewal, mobilization, and lineage differentiation. Proteins expressed in cancer cell-derived EVs can be useful to further understand the regulation of hematopoietic stem cell fate, a fundamental mechanism in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Furthermore, EVs are implicated in transmitting drug-resistance mechanisms in solid and not-solid cancer types. Here, using a proteomic approach, we analyze and validate the protein profile of EVs from three AML cell lines with different genotypes, namely OCI-AML-2, OCI-AML-3, and HL-60. The majority of the identified proteins were significantly enriched in the Gene Ontology category 'Extracellular Exosome'. Network model analysis of EV proteins revealed several significantly modulated pathways, including inflammation activation and metastatic processes in AML cell-derived EVs. The EVs proteomic profiling allows us to identify the EVs-associated molecules and pathways that could impact cancer progression and drug resistance.