Extracellular Vesicles and Nucleic Acids in Health and Disease

Dear Colleagues,

The term extracellular vesicles (EVs) is used to identify nanosized vesicles released by almost all cell types. EVs are present in every body fluid and their composition mirrors the type and the physio-pathological status of the originating cells. Due to these features and their targeting properties by recipient cells, EVs have been recently considered promising diagnostic and therapeutic tools. EVs contain different types of nucleic acids. The first studies demonstrated that EVs contain mRNAs that are translated and functionally active in target cells. This result led to the discovery that the horizontal transfer of genetic information via EVs represents one of the cell-to-cell communication mechanisms. Further, other non-coding RNA involved in protein synthesis or in regulatory functions, including tRNA, miRNA, siRNA, vtRNA, mtRNA, lncRNA, Y RNA, piRNA and snoRNA, have been found to be associated with EVs. Additionally, EVs isolated from cell culture media and biofluids carry DNA molecules, including mitochondrial DNA, single-stranded DNA and double-stranded DNA fragments.

In this Special Issue, authors are invited to submit original research and reviews on the nucleic acid content of EVs isolated from different sources and/or under different physio-pathological conditions, their biological roles, and their potential to be used as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool.

Dr. Sandra Buratta
Dr. Lorena Urbanelli
Collection Editors

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