Figure 1.

Schematic of TNT formation and the potential role of gap junction channels during long rage communication. As described in the text, TNT have at least 3 different stages, including formation, stabilization, and the transport of the cargo. The last one is associated with several different roles in disease including viral spreading, chemoresistance, and disease dissemination as well as an energy associated survival, genetic disease rescue and stress survival. TNT formation is triggered by inflammation, infection, toxicity, in several disease, and embryogenesis/morphogenesis. Some of the proteins involved in the formation of TNT are actin, Myosin Va and X, synaptophysin, Cx43, and M-sec. Following the formation of the TNT process, there are at least 2 different types of tubes, a synaptic and open-ended process. The formation of these long rage TNT enable the connected cells to share multiple proteins and lipids.