REVIEW article
Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Molecular and Cellular Pathology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2025.1600034
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Hidden Biology of Organelles, Vesicles, and Cytoskeletal Dynamics Behind Neurodevelopmental and Neurodegenerative Diseases: Emerging Principles and Tools to Interrogate their Function in VivoView all 3 articles
Vesicular trafficking and cell-cell communication in neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration
Provisionally accepted
- Human Technopole, Milano, Lombardy, Italy
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Regulation of vesicle biology and trafficking plays a critical role in cell viability. Vesicular trafficking is a process that entails vesicle biogenesis, transport, and sorting of materials such as proteins, enzymes, hormones, and neurotransmitters to different cellular compartments. This phenomenon is especially important in cells of the central nervous system, including neural progenitors, neurons, and glial cell populations, because of their highly polarized architecture. In line with that, disruption in vesicular trafficking during cortical development affects progenitor proliferation and differentiation and leads to brain malformations. On the other hand, neuronal cells require long-range vesicular trafficking to reach distant locations, such as the distal part of the axons, and synaptic vesicles are essential for cell-cell communication. Neurons have high energy demands. Therefore, any malfunction to vesicular trafficking is a trigger to spiraling into neurodegeneration. Here, we give a comprehensive review of the role of intracellular and extracellular vesicles in cortical development and neurodegeneration, and we discuss how trafficking between organelles in specific cell types contributes to brain pathologies. Finally, we highlight the emerging evidence linking disruption in vesicular trafficking to neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson and autism.
Keywords: Golgi Apparatus, Neurons, Lysosomes, retrograde and anterograde transport, Neural Stem Cells, Brain Development
Received: 25 Mar 2025; Accepted: 14 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Amin and Taverna. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Elena Taverna, Human Technopole, Milano, 20157, Lombardy, Italy
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