Dear Colleagues, 

We are delighted to announce a call for submissions to a Special Issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences on the topic: “Molecular Determinants and Mechanisms Involved in Docking and Uptake of Extracellular Vesicles: Implications in Cancer and the Immune System”.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) comprise a heterogeneous group of vesicular structures that are released by almost all cell types under both normal and pathological conditions and play crucial roles in intercellular communication in metazoan organisms.

In the immune system, EVs are involved in cell-to-cell communication amongst immune cells, regulating the initiation, activation and modulation of immune responses, through their roles in innate cell differentiation, antigen presentation, activation and polarization of NK, B and T lymphocytes and immune suppression and inflammation.

In cancer, EVs released by malignant cells promote tumour development, progression, chemoresistance and metastasis through a variety of mechanisms, including immune suppression.

In order to exert their functional roles in intercellular communication, EVs released by donor/producing cells must interact (“EV docking”) with target/acceptor cells, a process that is normally followed by their uptake by these recipient cells, resulting in the delivery of their biomolecular cargo that is responsible for induction of phenotypical and functional changes in these cells. Importantly, although the involvement of EVs in immune response regulation and in cancer-related processes is well established, knowledge on the specific molecules and mechanisms involved in the docking and uptake of EVs by the plethora of recipient target cells in cancer and immune system is still rather scarce. The focus in this Special Issue is to improve the understanding of the molecular determinants (adhesion molecules and their ligands, immune checkpoints, apoptosis inducers, co-stimulatory molecules, regulatory tetraspanins, etc.) and of the mechanisms (endocytosis, phagocytosis, micropinocytosis, membrane fusion, etc.) that are involved in the docking and uptake of extracellular vesicles by recipient cells and their implications in cancer and the immune response.

This Special Issue of IJMS welcomes both original research and review articles. All submitted articles will undergo a rigorous peer-review process.

Dr. María Yáñez-Mó
Dr. Francisco Sánchez-Madrid
Dr. Carlos Cabañas
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.