Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience (Oct 2017)
Tunneling Nanotubes and Gap Junctions–Their Role in Long-Range Intercellular Communication during Development, Health, and Disease Conditions
- Jennifer Ariazi,
- Andrew Benowitz,
- Vern De Biasi,
- Monique L. Den Boer,
- Stephanie Cherqui,
- Haifeng Cui,
- Nathalie Douillet,
- Eliseo A. Eugenin,
- Eliseo A. Eugenin,
- David Favre,
- Spencer Goodman,
- Karine Gousset,
- Dorit Hanein,
- David I. Israel,
- Shunsuke Kimura,
- Robert B. Kirkpatrick,
- Nastaran Kuhn,
- Claire Jeong,
- Emil Lou,
- Robbie Mailliard,
- Stephen Maio,
- George Okafo,
- Matthias Osswald,
- Matthias Osswald,
- Jennifer Pasquier,
- Roel Polak,
- Gabriele Pradel,
- Bob de Rooij,
- Peter Schaeffer,
- Vytenis A. Skeberdis,
- Ian F. Smith,
- Ahmad Tanveer,
- Niels Volkmann,
- Zhenhua Wu,
- Chiara Zurzolo
Affiliations
- Jennifer Ariazi
- GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA, United States
- Andrew Benowitz
- GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA, United States
- Vern De Biasi
- GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA, United States
- Monique L. Den Boer
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Erasmus MC – Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Stephanie Cherqui
- Division of Genetics, Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
- Haifeng Cui
- GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA, United States
- Nathalie Douillet
- GlaxoSmithKline, Stevenage, United Kingdom
- Eliseo A. Eugenin
- Public Health Research Institute (PHRI), Newark, NJ, United States
- Eliseo A. Eugenin
- Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers the State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, United States
- David Favre
- GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, NC, United States
- Spencer Goodman
- Division of Genetics, Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
- Karine Gousset
- Department of Biology, College of Science and Math, California State University, Fresno, CA, United States
- Dorit Hanein
- Bioinformatics and System Biology Program, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery, La Jolla, CA, United States
- David I. Israel
- 0GlaxoSmithKline, Waltham, MA, United States
- Shunsuke Kimura
- 1Laboratory of Histology and Cytology, Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
- Robert B. Kirkpatrick
- GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA, United States
- Nastaran Kuhn
- 2Division of Cancer Biology, Physical Sciences-Oncology Network, Cancer Tissue Engineering Collaborative Research Program, Program Director, Structural Biology and Molecular Applications Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, United States
- Claire Jeong
- 3GlaxoSmithKline, King of Prussia, PA, United States
- Emil Lou
- 4Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation, Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
- Robbie Mailliard
- 5Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
- Stephen Maio
- 3GlaxoSmithKline, King of Prussia, PA, United States
- George Okafo
- GlaxoSmithKline, Stevenage, United Kingdom
- Matthias Osswald
- 6Neurology Clinic and National Center for Tumor Diseases, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
- Matthias Osswald
- 7Clinical Cooperation Unit Neurooncology, German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
- Jennifer Pasquier
- 8Department of Genetic Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Qatar Foundation, Ar-Rayyan, Qatar
- Roel Polak
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Erasmus MC – Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Gabriele Pradel
- 9Division of Cellular and Applied Infection Biology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Bob de Rooij
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Erasmus MC – Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Peter Schaeffer
- GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA, United States
- Vytenis A. Skeberdis
- 0Institute of Cardiology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania
- Ian F. Smith
- 1Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States
- Ahmad Tanveer
- 2Section of Intracellular Trafficking and Neurovirology, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
- Niels Volkmann
- Bioinformatics and System Biology Program, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery, La Jolla, CA, United States
- Zhenhua Wu
- GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA, United States
- Chiara Zurzolo
- 3Unit of Membrane Trafficking and Pathogenesis, Department of Cell Biology and Infection, Pasteur Institute, Paris, France
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fnmol.2017.00333
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 10
Abstract
Cell-to-cell communication is essential for the organization, coordination, and development of cellular networks and multi-cellular systems. Intercellular communication is mediated by soluble factors (including growth factors, neurotransmitters, and cytokines/chemokines), gap junctions, exosomes and recently described tunneling nanotubes (TNTs). It is unknown whether a combination of these communication mechanisms such as TNTs and gap junctions may be important, but further research is required. TNTs are long cytoplasmic bridges that enable long-range, directed communication between connected cells. The proposed functions of TNTs are diverse and not well understood but have been shown to include the cell-to-cell transfer of vesicles, organelles, electrical stimuli and small molecules. However, the exact role of TNTs and gap junctions for intercellular communication and their impact on disease is still uncertain and thus, the subject of much debate. The combined data from numerous laboratories indicate that some TNT mediate a long-range gap junctional communication to coordinate metabolism and signaling, in relation to infectious, genetic, metabolic, cancer, and age-related diseases. This review aims to describe the current knowledge, challenges and future perspectives to characterize and explore this new intercellular communication system and to design TNT-based therapeutic strategies.
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