Extracellular vesicles carrying phosphatidylserine on their surface, found in large quantities in semen, saliva and breast milk, but not in blood, provide an innate defence strategy by blocking viral entry through competition for binding to cellular phosphatidylserine receptors, explaining why many viruses are transmitted by blood rather than by these body fluids.
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Margolis, L. Extracellular vesicles block viral entryways. Nat Microbiol 9, 882–883 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01651-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01651-8
