Exosomes, the Key Players in Cell-To-Cell Communication as the Universal Nano-Sized Disease Sensors of the Future

Abstract

Exosomes are nanovesicles shed by cells into the extracellular space. From an engineering point of view, exosomes can be assimilated to a complex system, that is, an arrangement of parts that together exhibit a behavior that the individual constituents do not. The authors argue that the unique composition of exosomes as well as their involvement in cell-to-cell communication and monitoring a multitude of diseases, justify entirely looking at exosomes, in the future, as universal sensors of diseases. In this paper, after the short background information on exosomes, the authors show how they are involved in the progress of different diseases.