Glycan Remodeling by Small Extracellular Vesicles
摘要
Glycosylation of proteins is a fundamental and frequent process that regulates protein functions and is associated with various diseases. Glycan biosynthesis is catalyzed by sequential actions of many glycosyltransferases in the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus, but how their intracellular activity is regulated remains largely unresolved. Recently, an increasing number of reports have demonstrated that glycans and related molecules are included in small extracellular vesicles (sEVs), and their physiological and pathological roles in sEVs have been actively studied. Furthermore, a few glycosyltransferases, such as GnT-V (MGAT5), have also been demonstrated to be included in sEVs and transferred from cell to cell via incorporation of these glycosyltransferase-loaded sEVs by recipient cells. Moreover, glycan structures in the recipient cells have been shown to be remodeled by the incorporation of glycosyltransferase-positive sEVs. These findings demonstrate a novel non-genetic sEV-mediated mechanism of glycan remodeling of cells, highlighting a new concept in which glycosyltransferases are transferred among cells via sEVs for regulating glycan expression.