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. 2026 Sep 22;16:1951597. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2026.1951597

Figure 5.

Four-phase infographic illustrating the developmental stages of targeted therapy. Phase 1 shows blood processing, platelet isolation, and RNA sequencing for discovery and validation of RNA types. Phase 2 involves preclinical development using RNA mimics or inhibitors, siRNAs, shRNAs, aptamers, and animal experiments. Phase 3 addresses drug delivery bottlenecks via exosomes or nanocarriers targeting platelets. Phase 4 depicts preclinical-to-clinical translation with a group of human figures for clinical trials. Central text reads, “The developmental stages of targeted therapy."

Translational development of TEP-associated ncRNAs for cancer diagnosis and therapy. Phase 1, Discovery and validation: platelet isolation, high-throughput RNA sequencing and bioinformatic analysis are used to identify tumor-associated ncRNA signatures, including miRNAs, circRNAs, and lncRNAs, in tumor-educated platelets (TEPs) across different cancer types. Phase 2, Preclinical development: candidate ncRNAs are functionally evaluated using experimental models, and therapeutic strategies such as miRNA mimics/inhibitors, siRNAs, shRNAs, antisense oligonucleotides, and aptamers may be explored to modulate cancer-associated ncRNA pathways. Phase 3, Overcoming the delivery bottleneck: engineered exosomes, nanocarriers and platelet-based delivery approaches may improve RNA delivery while reducing off-target effects and systemic toxicity. Phase 4, Preclinical-to-clinical translation: promising diagnostic or therapeutic candidates require validation in animal models, followed by carefully designed human clinical studies. At present, most TEP-associated ncRNA applications remain at the discovery or preclinical stage, and further validation is required before routine clinical use.