Genomic communication via circulating extracellular vesicles and long-term health consequences of COVID-19

Soumyalekshmi Nair; Estefania Nova-Lamperti; Gonzalo Labarca; Arutha Kulasinghe; Kirsty R Short; Flavio Carrión; Carlos Salomon

doi:10.1186/s12967-023-04552-2

Genomic communication via circulating extracellular vesicles and long-term health consequences of COVID-19

J Transl Med. 2023 Oct 10;21(1):709. doi: 10.1186/s12967-023-04552-2.

Authors

Soumyalekshmi Nair¹, Estefania Nova-Lamperti², Gonzalo Labarca², Arutha Kulasinghe³, Kirsty R Short⁴, Flavio Carrión⁵, Carlos Salomon^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Translational Extracellular Vesicles in Obstetrics and Gynae-Oncology Group, UQ Centre for Clinical Research, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, 4072, Australia.
² Molecular and Translational Immunology Laboratory, Clinical Biochemistry and Immunology Department, Pharmacy Faculty, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile.
³ Frazer Institute, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, 4102, Australia.
⁴ School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
⁵ Departamento de Investigación, Postgrado y Educación Continua (DIPEC), Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad del Alba, Santiago, Chile. flavio.carrion@udalba.cl.
⁶ Translational Extracellular Vesicles in Obstetrics and Gynae-Oncology Group, UQ Centre for Clinical Research, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, 4072, Australia. c.salomongallo@uq.edu.au.
⁷ Departamento de Investigación, Postgrado y Educación Continua (DIPEC), Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad del Alba, Santiago, Chile. c.salomongallo@uq.edu.au.

Abstract

COVID-19 continues to affect an unprecedented number of people with the emergence of new variants posing a serious challenge to global health. There is an expansion of knowledge in understanding the pathogenesis of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and the impact of the acute disease on multiple organs. In addition, growing evidence reports that the impact of COVID-19 on different organs persists long after the recovery phase of the disease, leading to long-term consequences of COVID-19. These long-term consequences involve pulmonary as well as extra-pulmonary sequelae of the disease. Noteably, recent research has shown a potential association between COVID-19 and change in the molecular cargo of extracellular vesicles (EVs). EVs are vesicles released by cells and play an important role in cell communication by transfer of bioactive molecules between cells. Emerging evidence shows a strong link between EVs and their molecular cargo, and regulation of metabolism in health and disease. This review focuses on current knowledge about EVs and their potential role in COVID-19 pathogenesis, their current and future implications as tools for biomarker and therapeutic development and their possible effects on long-term impact of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Long-term consequences; Metabolism; SARS-CoV-2.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Cell Communication
Extracellular Vesicles*
Genomics
Humans
SARS-CoV-2