Research progress on the role and mechanism of action of exosomes in autoimmune thyroid disease

Abstract

Exosomes are widely distributed extracellular vesicles (EVs), which are currently a major research hotspot for researchers based on their wide range of sources, stable membrane structure, low immunogenicity, and containing a variety of biomolecules. A large number of literatures have shown that exosomes and exosome cargoes (especially microRNAs) play an important role in the activation of inflammation, development of tumor, differentiation of cells, regulation of immunity and so on. Studies have found that exosomes can stimulate the immune response of the body and participate in the occurrence and development of various diseases, including autoimmune diseases. Furthermore, the potential of exosomes as therapeutic tools in various diseases has also attracted much attention. Autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) is one of the most common autoimmune diseases, mainly composed of Graves’ disease (GD) and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT), which affects the health of many people and has a genetic predisposition, but its pathogenesis is still being explored. Starting from the relevant biological characteristics of exosomes, this review summarizes the current research status of exosomes and the association between exosomes and some diseases, with a focus on the situation of AITD and the potential role of exosomes (including substances in their vesicles) in AITD in combination with the current published literature, aiming to provide new directions for the pathogenesis, diagnosis or therapy of AITD.

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Keywords:

• Autoimmune thyroid disease
• exosomes
• Graves’ disease
• Hashimoto’s thyroiditis

Declaration of Interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Sciences and Technology project of Fujian Provincial Department (2019J01166), Innovative medical research project of Fujian Province (2018-CX-33) and High-level talent program of sciences and technology project of Quanzhou (2018C044R).