The role of lipids in exosome biology and intercellular communication: Function, analytics and applications

Exosomes are extracellular vesicles that in recent years have received special attention for their regulatory functions in numerous biological processes. Recent evidence suggests a correlation between the composition of exosomes in body fluids and the progression of some disorders, such as cancer, diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases. In consequence, numerous studies have been performed to evaluate the composition of these vesicles, aiming to develop new biomarkers for diagnosis and to find novel therapeutic targets. On their part, lipids represent one of the most important components of exosomes, with important structural and regulatory functions during exosome biogenesis, release, targeting and cellular uptake. Therefore, exosome lipidomics has emerged as an innovative discipline for the discovery of novel lipid species with biomedical applications. This review summarizes the current knowledge about exosome lipids and their roles in exosome biology and intercellular communication. Furthermore, it presents the state-of-the-art analytical procedures used in exosome lipidomics while emphasizing how this emerging discipline is providing new insights for future applications of exosome lipids in biomedicine.