Realization of Osteolysis, Angiogenesis, Immunosuppression, and Drug Resistance by Extracellular Vesicles: Roles of RNAs and Proteins in Their Cargoes and of Ectonucleotidases of the Immunosuppressive Adenosinergic Noncanonical Pathway in the Bone Marrow Niche of Multiple Myeloma

Abstract

Simple Summary

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a disease that extensively involves bone, and angiogenesis and immunosuppression are important processes in the development of MM. Proteasome inhibitors and immunomodulatory drugs remarkably improve the survival of MM patients. However, MM is still an incurable disease that rapidly becomes resistant to these drugs. There is robust evidence that extracellular vesicles (EVs) contribute to cancer metastasis. Osteoclasts, in addition to immunosuppressive cells in the bone marrow (BM), are key players in osteolysis and immunosuppression. BM stromal cells and MM cells secrete EVs through which they communicate with each other: EVs, in fact, contain proteins, small RNAs, and long non-coding RNAs that mediate this communication and contribute to angiogenesis, osteolysis, and cancer dissemination and drug resistance. Ectoenzymes are expressed in myeloma cells, osteoclasts, and stromal cells and produce immunosuppressive adenosine. Recently, an antibody targeting CD38, an ectoenzyme, has been shown to improve the survival of patients with MM. Thus, understanding the properties of EV and ectoenzymes will help elucidate key processes of MM development.

Abstract

Angiogenesis and immunosuppression promote multiple myeloma (MM) development, and osteolysis is a primary feature of MM. Although immunomodulatory drugs and proteasome inhibitors (PIs) markedly improve the survival of patients with MM, this disease remains incurable. In the bone marrow niche, a chain of ectoenzymes, including CD38, produce immunosuppressive adenosine, inhibiting T cell proliferation as well as immunosuppressive cells. Therefore, anti-CD38 antibodies targeting myeloma cells have the potential to restore T cell responses to myeloma cells. Meanwhile extracellular vesicles (EVs) containing microRNAs, proteins such as cytokines and chemokines, long noncoding RNAs, and PIWI-interacting RNAs have been shown to act as communication tools in myeloma cell/microenvironment interactions. Via EVs, mesenchymal stem cells allow myeloma cell dissemination and confer PI resistance, whereas myeloma cells promote angiogenesis, myeloid-derived suppressor cell proliferation, and osteoclast differentiation and inhibit osteoblast differentiation. In this review, to understand key processes of MM development involving communication between myeloma cells and other cells in the tumor microenvironment, EV cargo and the non-canonical adenosinergic pathway are introduced, and ectoenzymes and EVs are discussed as potential druggable targets for the treatment of MM patients.