ExRNA as theranostic agents in cancer: current progress and future perspectives
1 Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia
2 Department of Pharmaceutical Life Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
3 Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Defence Health, University Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia
4 Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Sumatera Utara 20155, Indonesia
  • Volume
  • Citation
    Nik Abd Rahman N, Che Zahari C, Osman M, Mohamed Alitheen N, Mohd Said N, et al. ExRNA as theranostic agents in cancer: current progress and future perspectives. ExRNA 2025(2):0008, https://doi.org/10.55092/exrna20250008. 
  • DOI
    10.55092/exrna20250008
  • Copyright
    Copyright2025 by the authors. Published by ELSP.
Abstract

Cancer remains a leading cause of mortality worldwide despite the development of novel, precise, and less invasive strategies for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Encapsulated within different extracellular vesicles (EVs), especially exosomes, extracellular RNAs (exRNAs) have become important players in disease pathogenesis and intercellular communication. They are perfect candidates for liquid biopsies because of their stability, ubiquity in biofluids, and capacity to replicate the physiological and pathological conditions of parental cells. The growing role of exRNAs as “theranostic agents” in cancer, combining diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic capabilities, is thoroughly explored in this review. We investigate their potential as non-invasive biomarkers for tumor classification, early detection, and disease progression or recurrence prediction. Furthermore, we discuss the expanding therapeutic potential of exRNAs, which is frequently made possible by engineered exosome platforms and ranges from delivering therapeutic RNA molecules to inhibiting oncogenic exRNAs. Finally, we also highlight the current challenges in exRNA research, such as targeted delivery, standardization, isolation, and characterization, and we outline potential future directions for integrating exRNA-based theranostics into standard clinical practice for better cancer patient care.

Keywords

exRNA; cancer theranostics; liquid biopsy; exosomes; biomarkers

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