TY - JOUR
T1 - Small extracellular vesicles and covid19—using the “trojan horse” to tackle the giant
AU - Borowiec, Blanka Maria
AU - Volponi, Ana Angelova
AU - Mozdziak, Paul
AU - Kempisty, Bartosz
AU - Dyszkiewicz-Konwińska, Marta
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was in part supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture Animal Health NC07082.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - The COVID-19 pandemic is a global challenge, demanding researchers address different approaches in relation to prevention, diagnostics and therapeutics. Amongst the many tactics of tackling these therapeutic challenges, small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) or exosomes are emerging as a new frontier in the field of ameliorating viral infections. Exosomes are part of extracellular vesicles (EVs)—spherical biological structures with a lipid bilayer of a diameter of up to 5000 nm, which are released into the intercellular space by most types of eukaryotic cells, both in physiological and pathological states. EVs share structural similarities to viruses, such as small size, common mechanisms of biogenesis and mechanisms for cell entry. The role of EVs in promoting the viral spread by evading the immune response of the host, which is exhibited by retroviruses, indicates the potential for further investigation and possible manipulation of these processes when tackling the spread and treatment of COVID-19. The following paper introduces the topic of the use of exosomes in the treatment of viral infections, and presents the future prospects for the use of these EVs.
AB - The COVID-19 pandemic is a global challenge, demanding researchers address different approaches in relation to prevention, diagnostics and therapeutics. Amongst the many tactics of tackling these therapeutic challenges, small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) or exosomes are emerging as a new frontier in the field of ameliorating viral infections. Exosomes are part of extracellular vesicles (EVs)—spherical biological structures with a lipid bilayer of a diameter of up to 5000 nm, which are released into the intercellular space by most types of eukaryotic cells, both in physiological and pathological states. EVs share structural similarities to viruses, such as small size, common mechanisms of biogenesis and mechanisms for cell entry. The role of EVs in promoting the viral spread by evading the immune response of the host, which is exhibited by retroviruses, indicates the potential for further investigation and possible manipulation of these processes when tackling the spread and treatment of COVID-19. The following paper introduces the topic of the use of exosomes in the treatment of viral infections, and presents the future prospects for the use of these EVs.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Exosomes
KW - Extracellular vesicles
KW - SARS-CoV-2
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85120319675&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/cells10123383
DO - 10.3390/cells10123383
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85120319675
SN - 2073-4409
VL - 10
JO - Cells
JF - Cells
IS - 12
M1 - 3383
ER -