Cryptic erythrocytic infections in Plasmodium vivax, another challenge to its elimination

In the past decade, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been recognized as potent vehicles of intercellular communication, both in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. This is due to their capacity to transfer proteins, lipids and nucleic acids, thereby influencing various physiological and pathological functions of both recipient and parent cells. While intensive investigation has targeted the role of EVs in different pathological processes, for example, in cancer and autoimmune diseases, the EV-mediated maintenance of homeostasis and the regulation of physiological functions have remained less explored. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of the current understanding of the physiological roles of EVs, which has been written by crowd-sourcing, drawing on the unique EV expertise of academia-based scientists, clinicians and industry based in 27 European countries, the United States and Australia. This review is intended to be of relevance to both researchers already working on EV biology and to newcomers who will encounter this universal cell biological system. Therefore, here we address the molecular contents and functions of EVs in various tissues and body fluids from cell systems to organs. We also review the physiological mechanisms of EVs in bacteria, lower eukaryotes and plants to highlight the functional uniformity of this emerging communication system.

The fate of the transferrin receptor during in vitro maturation of sheep reticulocytes has been followed using FITC- and 125I-labeled anti-transferrin-receptor antibodies. Vesicles containing peptides that comigrate with the transferrin receptor on polyacrylamide gels are released during incubation of sheep reticulocytes, tagged with anti-transferrin-receptor antibodies. Vesicle formation does not require the presence of the anti-transferrin-receptor antibodies. Using 125I-surface-labeled reticulocytes, it can be shown that the 125I-labeled material which is released is retained by an immunoaffinity column of the anti-transferrin-receptor antibody. Using reticulocytes tagged with 125I-labeled anti-transferrin-receptor antibodies to follow the formation of vesicles, it can be shown that at 0 degree C or in phosphate-buffered saline the rate of vesicle release is less than that at 37 degrees C in culture medium. There is selective externalization of the antibody-receptor complex since few other membrane proteins are found in the externalized vesicles. The anti-transferrin-receptor antibodies cause redistribution of the receptor into patches that do not appear to be required for vesicle formation.

At 4 degrees C transferrin bound to receptors on the reticulocyte plasma membrane, and at 37 degrees C receptor-mediated endocytosis of transferrin occurred. Uptake at 37 degrees C exceeded binding at 4 degrees C by 2.5-fold and saturated after 20-30 min. During uptake at 37 degrees C, bound transferrin was internalized into a trypsin- resistant space. Trypsinization at 4 degrees C destroyed surface receptors, but with subsequent incubation at 37 degrees C, surface receptors rapidly appeared (albeit in reduced numbers), and uptake occurred at a decreased level. After endocytosis, transferrin was released, apparently intact, into the extracellular space. At 37 degrees C colloidal gold-transferrin (AuTf) clustered in coated pits and then appeared inside various intracellular membrane-bounded compartments. Small vesicles and tubules were labeled after short (5-10 min) incubations at 37 degrees C. Larger multivesicular endosomes became heavily labeled after longer (20-35 min) incubations. Multivesicular endosomes apparently fused with the plasma membrane and released their contents by exocytosis. None of these organelles appeared to be lysosomal in nature, and 98% of intracellular AuTf was localized in acid phosphatase-negative compartments. AuTf, like transferrin, was released with subsequent incubation at 37 degrees C. Freeze-dried and freeze-fractured reticulocytes confirmed the distribution of AuTf in reticulocytes and revealed the presence of clathrin-coated patches amidst the spectrin coating the inner surface of the plasma membrane. These data suggest that transferrin is internalized via coated pits and vesicles and demonstrate that transferrin and its receptor are recycled back to the plasma membrane after endocytosis.