Shedding New Light on the Cell Biology and Medicine of Extracellular Vesicles

Dear colleagues,

Extracellular vesicles (EV), including exosomes, microvesicles (MV) and apoptotic bodies, are biogenetic nanoparticles shedding and originate from cell-derived membranous structures. Lipid bilayers’ structured EVs have been demonstrated to be loaded with natural biocomponents such as proteins, lipids and genes, showing immense potential as advanced vesicular-like liposomes. In recent years, EVs have played major roles in multiple biologic and pathological processes in immunity, cancer metastasis, membrane fusion process, intercellular communication, quorum sensing, extracellular electron transport, drug-resistance, and bacterial defense to phage.

This Special Issue on "Shedding New Light on the Cell Biology and Medicine of Extracellular Vesicles” of the journal Membranes seeks contributions to advance the current and frontier developments in the field of biological nanoparticles with natural membrane features. Topics include but are not limited to: the biogenetic or artificial methods for EV production; the mechanism of membrane vesicle production; membrane fusion and liberation processes; characteristics of EVs and membrane proteins; the functions of EVs in increasing extracellular electron transport; the catalytic activity of functional membrane proteins; cancer metastasis; immunotherapy; liquid biopsy by detecting EVs; and novel applications. Authors are invited to submit their new findings; both original papers and reviews are welcome.

Dr. Tak-Wah Wong
Dr. Wei-Peng Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Membranes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.