Indoor dust extracellular vesicles promote cancer lung metastasis by inducing tumour necrosis factor-α

Indoor pollutants are important problems to public health. Among indoor pollutants, indoor dust contains extracellular vesicles (EVs), which are associated with pulmonary inflammation. However, it has not been reported whether indoor dust EVs affect the cancer lung metastasis. In this study, we isolated indoor dust EVs and investigated their roles in cancer lung metastasis. Upon intranasal administration, indoor dust EVs enhanced mouse melanoma lung metastasis in a dose-dependent manner in mice. Pre-treatment or co-treatment of indoor dust EVs significantly promoted melanoma lung metastasis, whereas post-treatment of the EVs did not. In addition, the lung lysates from indoor dust EV-treated mice significantly increased tumour cell migration in vitro. We observed that tumour necrosis factor-α played important roles in indoor dust EV-mediated promotion of tumour cell migration in vitro and cancer lung metastasis in vivo. Furthermore, Pseudomonas EVs, the main components of indoor dust EVs, and indoor dust EVs showed comparable effects in promoting tumour cell migration in vitro and cancer lung metastasis in vivo. Taken together, our results suggest that indoor dust EVs, at least partly contributed by Pseudomonas EVs, are potential promoting agents of cancer lung metastasis.