Exosomes: Biological Couriers with Transformative Messages

Abstract

Exosomes are nanovesicles produced by almost all cell types to the extracellular environment. These structures, initially mistaken for "cellular dust", are key effectors of cell-cell communication and play major roles in maintaining normal physiological function and homeostatic balance as well as relaying pathology. Given their non-immunogenicity, their native membrane composition combined with the wealth of contained bioinfomative cargoes and coupled to their innate ability to cross multiple biological barriers, these tiny sacs have merited a great deal of interest in recent years and are slowly edging their way to the surface. Accruing evidence corroborating the far-reaching potential of exosomes is ever growing and easily demonstrable. Nonetheless, progress with translation of the reported outcomes to clinical settings and recognition of these tools as a multi-application platform remains much too inadequate for the outstanding potential of these biological messengers and the entailed shift in theragnostic paradigms. The purpose of this review is to recapitulate on the most recent advances in exosome research and accentuate their momentous promise as game changers in disease diagnostics and therapeutics. Finally, market transition and commercialization efforts are highlighted with a brief commentary on the status quo. Syndecans/syntenin system: Syndecans are membrane-associated proteoglycans, whereas syntenin is a syndecan-interacting protein. Syntenin contains a PDZ domain, which constitutes the site of interaction with syndecan. The syndecan/syntenin system has been proven to play a key role in exosomal biogenesis [98]. 4Cortactin: a protein involved in cytoskeletal modification.

Telocytes inside of the peripheral nervous system – a 3D endoneurial network and putative role in cell communication

“…By their abilities to establish homo-and heterocellular contacts, TCs perform 3D stromal networks inside of almost tissues/organs. It seems that such cell-contacts contribute to cell signaling by the intercellular exchange of ions or molecules [2,[31][32][33].…”

“…By their abilities to establish homo- and heterocellular contacts, TCs perform 3D stromal networks inside of almost tissues/organs. It seems that such cell-contacts contribute to cell signaling by the intercellular exchange of ions or molecules [ 2 , 33 , 32 , 33 ]. TCs are able to establish homo- and heterocellular junctions and, very interestingly, TCs have the ability to generate and deliver extracellular vesicles (EVs) including exosomes as cargo for different messenger molecules [exosomes contain messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), which can be shuttled from one cell to another] so that TCs are strongly involved in cell signaling both in normal conditions, as well as during complex process of carcinogenesis, including malignant cells invasivity [ 2 , 26 , 31 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ].…”

Sphingomyelinases in a journey to combat arthropod‐borne pathogen transmission

“…There are two main mechanisms of exosome biogenesis: the ESCRT-dependent and ESCRT-independent pathways [153]. The ESCRT-independent pathway is shown schematically in Fig.…”

Mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosome as a nano weapon to target the COVID-19 pandemic

“…These diverse features of the exosomes make them an appropriate nano-platform for future commercialization and biomedical applications. Certain startups like Exomedx, Codiak Biosciences, Exocyte Therapeutics, etc., have explored the commercialization of exosomes for regenerative medicine, e.g., Kimera labs have created an exosome-based product called XoGlo™ for skin rejuvenation (Yousef and Abdelnaser, 2019). This will decrease the cost of therapy drastically, resolving the question of affordability and providing medicine-for-all, while the easy handling procedures will aid in logistics hence providing medical-to-all (Fig.…”