Present in many cell types, non-degradative secretory autophagy is a newly discovered pathway in which autophagosomes fuse with the plasma membrane instead of lysosomes. Surprisingly, some viruses exploit secretory autophagy to exit cells non-lytically, shedding into the extracellular environment as particle populations contained within vesicles. As a result, this significantly enhances the infectivity of these viruses. In this paper, this novel cellular exit pathway is highlighted and its advantages for viral transmission discussed.
Keywords: Coxsackievirus; RNA virus; enterovirus; picornavirus; poliovirus; quasispecies; rhinovirus; secretory autophagy; syntaxin 17; viral transmission.