Interactions between extracellular vesicles and viruses: lessons learned across species and kingdoms

Abstract

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membranous nanoparticles released by cells that help shape the extracellular environment, remove cellular waste, and mediate cell-to-cell communication. Their release is ubiquitous across kingdoms, species, and cell types, highlighting their functional importance. Nearly as evolutionarily widespread and heterogeneous is the release of viruses, which have evolved to co-opt the host’s cellular machinery to facilitate their replication and spread within all branches of life. Nearly all viruses, enveloped or not, repurpose EVs to modulate infection dynamics, while EVs also play a crucial role in the host’s response to infection. This review explores the interplay between EVs and viruses across the phylogenetic diversity of virus species. We urge virologists and EV biologists to look beyond a single infection model and learn from the unique concepts and shared commonalities observed between close, as well as distantly related viruses, whether they infect mammals, vertebrates, insects, plants, bacteria, or more. To facilitate these efforts, we provide a comprehensive, taxonomical overview of the current knowledge regarding DNA and RNA virus families, and discuss recurring motifs in EV release and function during infection.