Role of extracellular vesicles in disease: a novel tool for understanding disease mechanism?

Abstract

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), known as exosomes and microvesicles, serve as versatile intercellular communication vehicles. EVs are membranous lipid vesicles that are released from every type of cell. It has become clear that EVs are involved in a variety of biological processes, including disease progression, and play critical roles in intracellular communication through the horizontal transfer of cellular cargoes such as proteins, DNA fragments, RNAs including mRNA and non-coding RNAs (microRNA, piRNA, and long non-coding RNA) and lipids. This exchange of information between cells has been observed in a homeostatic state and various diseases. Therefore, EVs are a promising new tool for analyzing biological networks. Furthermore, understanding EV-mediated biological networks is expected to lead to the elucidation of EV-associated pathologies and the development of EV-based therapeutics and diagnostics. In this presentation, I will introduce our recent research on the function of EVs in disease and the development of EV-targeting therapy and EV-based liquid biopsy.