Surface Proteome of Extracellular Vesicles and Correlation Analysis for Identification of Breast Cancer Biomarkers

Breast cancer (BC) is the second leading cause of death in Canadian women. Despite this, non-invasive early detection methods for BC have yet to be developed. Cells release various types of extracellular vesicles (EVs) as intercellular signals into biofluids, such as blood, reflecting the physiological state of the origin cell. It is by transmitting bioactive molecules between cells that EVs may regulate multiple pathologies in human diseases, including cancer. The detection of protein biomarkers present on the surface of EVs in depleted or enriched biofluids could enable the early diagnosis of BC. Therefore, we used two different approaches to study the surfactome of EVs from cancerous and non-cancerous cells. We found several potential biomarkers that may be involved in the early diagnosis of BC.