Bacteroides fragilis outer membrane vesicles

Number of publications show that intestinal microflora vesicles secretion is essential for the maintaining homeostasis. Conducted comprehensive genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic studies of vesicles determine the nature and the basic mechanisms of bacterial influence to the host. The role of the vesicles to a greater extent is defined as carriers of virulence factors or enzymes determining the nutritional function. In addition some bacterial vesicles have a special mission. B.fragilis vesicles are providing anti-inflammatory effect on the colon immune cells. However there is no information about possible role of vesicles secreted by ETBF, contributing bowel disease development and colon cancer. To determine possible effects of ETBF vesicles to the host compared with NTBF, we performed comprehensive proteome and for the first time metabolome analysis and reconstructed pathways for vesicles of both strains with subsequent confirmation of the activity of one of the main pathway by fluxome analysis. A detailed analysis of the vesicles allowed us to discover a new quality of ETBF vesicles as intelligent systems capable of absorbing and processing of exogenous substrates. We believe that this property allows them to maintain stability for a long time and implement mechanisms of pathogenicity.