Scuteri A, Donzelli E. Dual role of extracellular vesicles in neurodegenerative diseases. World J Stem Cells 2024; 16(12): 1002-1011 [PMID: PMC11669982 DOI: 10.4252/wjsc.v16.i12.1002]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Arianna Scuteri, Associate Professor, PhD, Professor, Experimental Neurology Unit and Milan Center for Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Via Cadore 48, Monza 20900, Italy. arianna.scuteri@unimib.it
Research Domain of This Article
Neurosciences
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Stem Cells. Dec 26, 2024; 16(12): 1002-1011 Published online Dec 26, 2024. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v16.i12.1002
Dual role of extracellular vesicles in neurodegenerative diseases
Arianna Scuteri, Elisabetta Donzelli
Arianna Scuteri, Elisabetta Donzelli, Experimental Neurology Unit and Milan Center for Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Monza 20900, Italy
Co-first authors: Arianna Scuteri and Elisabetta Donzelli.
Author contributions: Scuteri A conceptualized the work and wrote the original draft; Scuteri A and Donzelli E wrote, edited and revised the paper. All the authors have equally contributed to the paper, read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Arianna Scuteri, Associate Professor, PhD, Professor, Experimental Neurology Unit and Milan Center for Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Via Cadore 48, Monza 20900, Italy. arianna.scuteri@unimib.it
Received: August 30, 2024 Revised: October 17, 2024 Accepted: November 22, 2024 Published online: December 26, 2024 Processing time: 104 Days and 19.7 Hours
Abstract
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are cell-to-cell interaction tools that are attracting increasing interest in the literature in two opposing areas. In addition to their role in physiological development, there is growing evidence of their involvement in healing and protective processes. However, EVs also mediate pathological conditions, particularly contributing to the progression of several chronic diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases. On the other hand, EVs also form the core of a new therapeutic strategy for neuroprotection, which is based on the administration of EVs derived from a wide range of donor cells. In particular, the possibility of obtaining numerous EVs from stem cells of different origins, which is feasible for therapeutic aims, is now under investigation. In this review, we focused on neurodegenerative diseases, in which EVs could have a propagative detrimental effect or could also be exploited to deliver protective factors. This review explores the different hypotheses concerning the dual role of EVs, with the aim of shedding light on the following question: Can vesicles be used to fight vesicle-propagated diseases?
Core Tip: An increasing number of studies in the literature have focused on the role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in the progression of several diseases, particularly neurodegenerative diseases, in which EVs are presumed to transfer pathological molecules to normal cells. Nevertheless, many therapeutic strategies focus on the use of EVs to deliver prosurvival factors; however, apparent discrepancies are noted. In this review, we focused on neurodegenerative diseases to shed light on the dual role that EVs play and explored, in particular, the potential therapeutic role of stem cell-derived EVs.
