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Review
. 2022 Sep 30;23(19):11553.
doi: 10.3390/ijms231911553.

Research Progress on Bacterial Membrane Vesicles and Antibiotic Resistance

Xiaofei Liu  1 , Jinyang Xiao  1 , Shuming Wang  1 , Jinxia Zhou  1 , Jiale Qin  1 , Zhibo Jia  1 , Yanfeng Wang  1 , Zhigang Wang  1 , Yongmin Zhang  2 , Huifang Hao  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Research Progress on Bacterial Membrane Vesicles and Antibiotic Resistance

Xiaofei Liu et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

As a result of antibiotic overuse, bacterial antibiotic resistance has become a severe threat to worldwide public health. The development of more effective antimicrobial therapies and alternative antibiotic strategies is urgently required. The role played by bacterial membrane vesicles (BMVs) in antibiotic resistance has become a current focus of research. BMVs are nanoparticles derived from the membrane components of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and contain diverse components originating from the cell envelope and cytoplasm. Antibiotic stress stimulates the secretion of BMVs. BMVs promote and mediate antibiotic resistance by multiple mechanisms. BMVs have been investigated as conceptually new antibiotics and drug-delivery vehicles. In this article, we outline the research related to BMVs and antibiotic resistance as a reference for the intentional use of BMVs to combat antibiotic resistance.

Keywords: BMVs; antibiotic resistance; bacterial membrane vesicles; biogenesis; conceptually new antibiotics; drug-delivery vehicles.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Structure and composition of BMVs. (A) OMVs and (B) MVs.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Different pathways for the biogenesis of BMVs.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Biogenesis of OMVs via OM blebbing. Step 1: Gram-negative bacterial-cell-enveloped proteins are initially uniformly distributed. The outer membrane is linked with peptidoglycan. Steps 2 and 3: Vesiculation is initiated when the connection between the outer membrane and the peptidoglycan is lost due to the migration of connecting proteins or direct breakage. Models A, B, and C demonstrate three possible mechanisms of OMVs generation. Model A depicts OMV production at its most basic level. In model B, additional budding events can be generated by periplasmic protein aggregation. The resulting OMVs are enriched with periplasm cargo. In model C, the accumulation of curvature-inducing OM proteins causes OMVs to bud from the Gram-negative bacterium at specific proteins on the envelope surface. The OMVs will be enriched with curvature-inducing molecules and molecules associated with them (adapted from [55]). This figure is adapted with copyright permission.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Three mechanisms of BMV formation under antibiotic stress.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Mechanisms of antibiotic resistance mediated by BMVs. The left picture shows OMVs of Gram-negative bacteria, and the right picture shows MVs of Gram-positive bacteria.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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