Potential role of extracellular vesicles in cisplatin resistance: Autophagy-related markers in extracellular vesicles of oral squamous cell carcinoma cells

Drug resistance is a critical problem in treating cancer. Recent research shows that the cellular process, autophagy, and nanoparticles known as extracellular vesicles contribute to resistance towards chemotherapies like cisplatin. This thesis investigates autophagy and extracellular vesicles in oral cancer cells, revealing that two specific proteins, ATG12 and LC3B, are associated with cisplatin resistance. Importantly, this thesis highlights the potential of LC3B protein in extracellular vesicles as a non-invasive predictive biomarker, which could lead to better tests to predict how effectively oral cancer patients respond to therapies. In future, these findings could improve treatments for oral cancer.