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Saliva is a useful biofluid for the early detection of disease, but how distal tumors communicate with the oral cavity and create disease-specific salivary biomarkers remains unclear. Using an in vitro breast cancer model, we demonstrated that breast cancer-derived exosome-like microvesicles are capable of interacting with salivary gland cells, altering the composition of their secreted exosome-like microvesicles. We found that the salivary gland cells secreted exosome-like microvesicles encapsulating both protein and mRNA. We also showed that the interaction with breast cancer-derived exosome-like microvesicles communicated and activated the transcriptional machinery of the salivary gland cells. Thus, the interaction altered the composition of the salivary gland cell-derived exosome-like microvesicles on both the transcriptomically and proteomically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]