Abstract
One of many types of extracellular vesicles (EVs), exosomes are nanovesicle structures that are released by almost all living cells that can perform a wide range of critical biological functions. Exosomes play important roles in both normal and pathological conditions by regulating cell-cell communication in cancer, angiogenesis, cellular differentiation, osteogenesis, and inflammation. Exosomes are stable in vivo and they can regulate biological processes by transferring lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, and even entire signaling pathways through the circulation to cells at distal sites. Recent advances in the identification, production, and purification of exosomes have created opportunities to exploit these structures as novel drug delivery systems, modulators of cell signaling, mediators of antigen presentation, as well as biological targeting agents and diagnostic tools in cancer therapy. This review will examine the functions of immunocyte-derived exosomes and their roles in the immune response under physiological and pathological conditions. The use of immunocyte exosomes in immunotherapy and vaccine development is discussed.
Highlights
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a heterogeneous family of lipid bilayer-derived nanovesicles that are released by almost all living cells [1,2]
intraluminal vesicles (ILV) are loaded with cargo by capture during vesicle formation or via a trans-golgi process regulated by CD2AP and LMAN2 [9] and mature into late endosomes, or multivesicular bodies (MVB) [10], which fuse with either lysosomes for content degradation or the plasma membrane to release exosomes into the extracellular environment [11,12,13]
Much effort has been devoted to the development of immunocyte exosomes as therapeutics
Summary
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a heterogeneous family of lipid bilayer-derived nanovesicles that are released by almost all living cells [1,2]. Following exosome internalization, which is mediated through several different pathways, the contents of exosomes are released by either direct fusion with the plasma membrane or via uptake as intact vesicles via the endosomal pathway [17]. This distinction is important in the context of antigen presenting cells (APCs), which can process exosomal antigens through endosomes where they are loaded onto. We use the term exosome to describe all vesicle structures of standard size (30–100 nm) that express typical exosomal markers
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