TY - JOUR
T1 - Tumour microvesicles contain retrotransposon elements and amplified oncogene sequences
AU - Balaj, Leonora
AU - Lessard, Ryan
AU - Dai, Lixin
AU - Cho, Yoon Jae
AU - Pomeroy, Scott L.
AU - Breakefield, Xandra O.
AU - Skog, Johan
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Ms Suzanne McDavitt for skilled editorial assistance, Dr Mikkel Noerholm, Jens Magnusson and Tobias Limperg for editing of the manuscript, and Drs Tom Würdinger and David Noske in the Neuro-Oncology Research Group (NRG), Cancer Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam NL for continuous support. We also thank Dr Leileata Russo for insightful discussions, Dr Kristan van der Vos for valuable assistance with microvesicle quantification and Dr Kathleen Burns and Dr Jef Boeke for advice on the RT assay. This work was kindly supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation (J.S.), Hyugens Scholarship NL (L.B.), Stiftelsen Olle Engkvist Byggmästare (J.S.), NCI CA86355 (X.O.B.), NCI CA69246 (X.O.B./J.S.), and CA141226 NCI (X.O.B.), CA141150 (X.O.B./J.S.), CA109467 (S.L.P., J.C.).
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - Tumour cells release an abundance of microvesicles containing a selected set of proteins and RNAs. Here, we show that tumour microvesicles also carry DNA, which reflects the genetic status of the tumour, including amplification of the oncogene c-Myc. We also find amplified c-Myc in serum microvesicles from tumour-bearing mice. Further, we find remarkably high levels of retrotransposon RNA transcripts, especially for some human endogenous retroviruses, such as LINE-1 and Alu retrotransposon elements, in tumour microvesicles and these transposable elements could be transferred to normal cells. These findings expand the nucleic acid content of tumour microvesicles to include: elevated levels of specific coding and non-coding RNA and DNA, mutated and amplified oncogene sequences and transposable elements. Thus, tumour microvesicles contain a repertoire of genetic information available for horizontal gene transfer and potential use as blood biomarkers for cancer.
AB - Tumour cells release an abundance of microvesicles containing a selected set of proteins and RNAs. Here, we show that tumour microvesicles also carry DNA, which reflects the genetic status of the tumour, including amplification of the oncogene c-Myc. We also find amplified c-Myc in serum microvesicles from tumour-bearing mice. Further, we find remarkably high levels of retrotransposon RNA transcripts, especially for some human endogenous retroviruses, such as LINE-1 and Alu retrotransposon elements, in tumour microvesicles and these transposable elements could be transferred to normal cells. These findings expand the nucleic acid content of tumour microvesicles to include: elevated levels of specific coding and non-coding RNA and DNA, mutated and amplified oncogene sequences and transposable elements. Thus, tumour microvesicles contain a repertoire of genetic information available for horizontal gene transfer and potential use as blood biomarkers for cancer.
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U2 - 10.1038/ncomms1180
DO - 10.1038/ncomms1180
M3 - Article
C2 - 21285958
AN - SCOPUS:79551608032
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 2
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 180
ER -