Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, 12 July, 2021, DOI：https://doi.org/10.1002/jev2.12123

LncRNA‐encoded microproteins: A new form of cargo in cell culture‐derived and circulating extracellular vesicles

Tanxi Cai, Qing Zhang, Bowen Wu, Jifeng Wang, Na Li, Tingting Zhang, Zhipeng Wang, Jianjun Luo, Xiaojing Guo, Xiang Ding, Zhensheng Xie, Lili Niu, Weihai Ning, Zhen Fan, Xiaowei Chen, Xiangqian Guo, Runsheng Chen, Hongwei Zhang, and Fuquan Yang

Abstract

Advancements in omics‐based technologies over the past few years have led to the discovery of numerous biologically relevant peptides encoded by small open reading frames (smORFs) embedded in long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) transcripts (referred to as microproteins here) in a variety of species. However, the mechanisms and modes of action that underlie the roles of microproteins have yet to be fully characterized. Herein, we provide the first experimental evidence of abundant microproteins in extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from glioma cancer cells, indicating that the EV‐mediated transfer of microproteins may represent a novel mechanism for intercellular communication. Intriguingly, when examining human plasma, 48, 11 and 3 microproteins were identified from purified EVs, whole plasma and EV‐free plasma, respectively, suggesting that circulating microproteins are primarily enriched in EVs. Most importantly, the preliminary data showed that the expression profile of EV microproteins in glioma patient diverged from the health donors, suggesting that the circulating microproteins in EVs might have potential diagnostic application in identifying patients with glioma.

Article link：https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8275822/