“…From this distinguishing feature results the major function of TNTs, which allows direct transfer of material from one cell to another. TNTs were shown to transfer several types of cargo, such as vesicles derived from various organelles (early endosome, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi complex, and lysosome) (Kadiu & Gendelman, 2011a, 2011bSmith et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2011), plasma membrane components (Rustom et al, 2004), cytoplasmic molecules, Ca 2+ (Smith et al, 2011;Watkins & Salter, 2005), and mitochondria (Pasquier et al, 2013;Pinto et al, 2020;Sáenz-de-Santa-María et al, 2017;Sartori-Rupp et al, 2019;Vignais et al, 2017). In addition, TNT-like structures can transfer pathogens, e.g., bacteria (Onfelt et al, 2006), HIV particles (Jansens et al, 2020;Sowinski et al, 2011), SARS-CoV-2 particles (Pepe et al, 2022), and proteinaceous agents, such as prions , huntingtin assemblies (Costanzo et al, 2013), alpha-synuclein fibrils (Abounit et al, 2016;Dilsizoglu Senol et al, 2021Vargas et al, 2019), and tau aggregates (Chastagner et al, 2020).…”