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Review
. 2021 Apr 1:9:637192.
doi: 10.3389/fcell.2021.637192. eCollection 2021.

HIV Neuroinflammation: The Role of Exosomes in Cell Signaling, Prognostic and Diagnostic Biomarkers and Drug Delivery

Supriya D Mahajan  1 , Nigel Smith Ordain  1 , Hilliard Kutscher  1   2   3 , Shanta Karki  1 , Jessica L Reynolds  1
Affiliations
Review

HIV Neuroinflammation: The Role of Exosomes in Cell Signaling, Prognostic and Diagnostic Biomarkers and Drug Delivery

Supriya D Mahajan et al. Front Cell Dev Biol. .

Abstract

Fifty to sixty percent of HIV-1 positive patients experience HIV-1 associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) likely due to persistent inflammation and blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction. The role that microglia and astrocytes play in HAND pathogenesis has been well delineated; however, the role of exosomes in HIV neuroinflammation and neuropathogenesis is unclear. Exosomes are 50-150 nm phospholipid bilayer membrane vesicles that are responsible for cell-to-cell communication, cellular signal transduction, and cellular transport. Due to their diverse intracellular content, exosomes, are well poised to provide insight into HIV neuroinflammation as well as provide for diagnostic and predictive information that will greatly enhance the development of new therapeutic interventions for neuroinflammation. Exosomes are also uniquely positioned to be vehicles to delivery therapeutics across the BBB to modulate HIV neuroinflammation. This mini-review will briefly discuss what is known about exosome signaling in the context of HIV in the central nervous system (CNS), their potential for biomarkers as well as their potential for vehicles to deliver various therapeutics to treat HIV neuroinflammation.

Keywords: HIV neuroinflammation; blood-brain barrier; delivery; exosomes; signaling.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Blood–brain barrier model demonstrating proof of concept of exosome delivery of Tspan2 across the BBB to latently infected microglia on the brain side. Schematic adapted from Reynolds and Mahajan (2020).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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