Abstract
The neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, are caused by aggregation and accumulation of the disease–causative proteins in brains. Recent reports suggest that the disease–associated proteins are secreted from cells via exosomes, one of the extracellular vesicles, which may transmit to the other cells, leading to intercellular transmission of the protein aggregates in brains. On the other hand, it has been also reported that exosomes have physiological roles in maintaining protein homeostasis at the multicellular organismal level, which potentially suppresses disease progression by preventing aggregation and aberrant accumulation of the disease-associated proteins. In this review, I will summarize the current understanding of the pathogenic and protective roles of exosomes in the neurodegenerative diseases and discuss potential development of exosome–based biomarkers and therapies for the diseases.
