Nanotubes, exosomes, and nucleic acid-binding peptides provide novel mechanisms of intercellular communication in eukaryotic cells: implications in health and disease.

The prevailing view that eukaryotic cells are restrained from intercellular exchange of genetic information has been challenged by recent reports on nanotubes, exosomes, apoptotic bodies, and nucleic acid-binding peptides that provide novel pathways for cell-cell communication, with implications in health and disease.