Abstract
Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are nanoscale proteoliposomes secreted from the cell envelope of all Gram-negative bacteria. Originally considered as an artifact of the cell wall, OMVs are now recognized as a general secretion system, which serves to improve the fitness of bacteria and facilitate bacterial interactions in polymicrobial communities as well as interactions between the microbe and the host. In general, OMVs are released in increased amounts from pathogenic bacteria and have been found to harbor much of the contents of the parental bacterium. They mainly encompass components of the outer membrane and the periplasm including various virulence factors such as toxins, adhesins, and immunomodulatory molecules. Numerous studies have clearly shown that the delivery of toxins and other virulence factors via OMVs essentially influences their interactions with host cells. Here, we review the OMV-mediated intracellular deployment of toxins and other virulence factors with a special focus on intestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli. Especially, OMVs ubiquitously produced and secreted by enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) appear as a highly advanced mechanism for secretion and simultaneous, coordinated and direct delivery of bacterial virulence factors into host cells. OMV-associated virulence factors are not only stabilized by the association with OMVs, but can also often target previously unknown target structures and perform novel activities. The toxins are released by OMVs in their active forms and are transported via cell sorting processes to their specific cell compartments, where they can develop their detrimental effects. OMVs can be considered as bacterial “long distance weapons” that attack host tissues and help bacterial pathogens to establish the colonization of their biological niche(s), impair host cell function, and modulate the defense of the host. Thus, OMVs contribute significantly to the virulence of the pathogenic bacteria.
Introduction
Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are nanoscale proteoliposomes secreted from the cell envelope of all Gram-negative bacteria (Amano et al., ; Ellis and Kuehn, ; Kulp and Kuehn, ; O'Donoghue and Krachler, 2016). They are produced by a controlled blebbing of the bacterial outer membrane due to the envelope disturbances via different mechanisms (Kulp and Kuehn, ; Schwechheimer and Kuehn, 2015; Elhenawy et al., ; Roier et al., 2016; Toyofuku et al., 2019). As a result, OMVs are surrounded by a single membrane bilayer and contain mostly components of the bacterial outer membrane (outer membrane proteins, lipopolysaccharide, phospholipids, peptidoglycan) and the periplasm (periplasmic proteins) (Kulp and Kuehn, ; Schwechheimer and Kuehn, 2015; Toyofuku et al., 2019). Originally considered an artifact of the cell wall, OMVs are now recognized as a general secretion system (Guerrero-Mandujano et al., ), which serves to improve the fitness of bacteria and facilitate interactions between cells in the context of mixed bacterial communities and between host and microbe (Ellis and Kuehn, ; Kulp and Kuehn, ; MacDonald and Kuehn, ; Haurat et al., ). The release of membrane vesicles is an ubiquitous process and was observed among a wide range of bacteria. Not only pathogenic bacteria such as for example Vibrio cholerae, Campylobacter jejuni, Helicobacter pylori, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Moraxella catarrhalis, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Acinetobacter baumannii, Shigella flexneri, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), adherent-invasive E. coli, and extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli, but also non-pathogenic bacteria such as E. coli Nissle 1917, shed membrane vesicles during growth (Kadurugamuwa and Beveridge, , ; Wai et al., 1995, 2003; Horstman and Kuehn, , ; Kesty et al., ; Balsalobre et al., ; Kouokam et al., ; Bomberger et al., ; Lindmark et al., ; Ellis and Kuehn, ; Rolhion et al., 2010; Chatterjee and Chaudhuri, ; Rumbo et al., 2011; Schaar et al., 2011; Rompikuntal et al., 2012, 2015; Guidi et al., ; Kunsmann et al., ; Elhenawy et al., ; Bielaszewska et al., ; Chatterjee et al., ; Devos et al., ; Fabrega et al., ; Svennerholm et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2019).
OMVs typically have a diameter of 20–250 nm and are released during all growth phases and under all environmental conditions (Ellis and Kuehn, ; Bonnington and Kuehn, ). OMVs protect their molecular biological content against the external environment and can transport their cargo over long distances (Bomberger et al., ; Bonnington and Kuehn, ). The cargo may either be present as a solute in the vesicle lumen or be associated with or integrated into the vesicle membrane (Horstman and Kuehn, ; Kesty et al., ; Bomberger et al., ; Lindmark et al., ; Bielaszewska et al., , ; Kunsmann et al., ; Figures 1A,BI,II). OMVs carry both bacterial toxins (Horstman and Kuehn, ; Wai et al., 2003; Kesty et al., ; Balsalobre et al., ; Kouokam et al., ; Aldick et al., ; Ellis and Kuehn, ; Chatterjee and Chaudhuri, ; Rompikuntal et al., 2012; Guidi et al., ; Kunsmann et al., ; Bielaszewska et al., ) and other virulence factors such as adhesins, invasins, outer membrane proteins, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), flagellin, and proteases (Kadurugamuwa and Beveridge, ; Bomberger et al., ; Ellis and Kuehn, ; Rolhion et al., 2010; Kunsmann et al., ; Rompikuntal et al., 2015; Vanaja et al., 2016; Bielaszewska et al., ). Secretion of OMVs is generally considered to be an adaptive response to environmental stress and often occurs during infection when the bacteria are exposed to the host's defense mechanisms (MacDonald and Kuehn, ; Orench-Rivera and Kuehn, 2016; Bauwens et al., ). In the presence of antimicrobial peptides or bacteriophages, increased production of membrane vesicles correlates with improved fitness and increased survival (Manning and Kuehn, 2011; Duperthuy et al., ). For example, EHEC enhances the secretion of outer membrane protease OmpT-loaded OMVs during infection and thereby blocks bacterial cell attack by human antibacterial peptide cathelicidin LL-37 (Urashima et al., 2017).
Figure 1
In general, OMVs are released in increased amounts from pathogenic bacteria, suggesting that OMV secretion is an additional virulence mechanism of pathogens (Horstman and Kuehn,
Biogenesis of OMVs
Different mechanisms for OMV biogenesis have been described so far. One mechanism proposes the temporary reduction or relocation of covalent linkages of proteins between the outer membrane (OM) and the peptidoglycan (PG). At the site of local decrease in overall crosslinks, the OM has to grow fast and finally bud off (Schwechheimer and Kuehn, 2015). This model was supported by a study in which mutants lacking OmpA and thus harboring a lower number of crosslinks between OM and PG, revealed an increased OMV production (Kulp and Kuehn,
Increased OMV Production as a Bacterial Stress Response
Larger amounts of membrane vesicle release has been broadly observed related to stress response of bacteria. Nutrient scarcity, iron limitation, oxidative stress, hydrogen peroxide as well as a low pH induced the release of OMVs in high amounts (Schwechheimer and Kuehn, 2015; Orench-Rivera and Kuehn, 2016; Bauwens et al.,
It is worth mentioning that membrane vesicles produced under particular environmental stress may not result from the outer membrane blebbing typical for the formation of OMVs, but arise by different mechanisms and thus differ from OMVs by their composition and presumably by their functions. Specifically, the outer-inner membrane vesicles (OIMVs) recently identified in several genera of Gram-negative bacteria including pathogens such as Neisseria gonorrhea, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii (Pérez-Cruz et al., 2013, 2015) are characterized by a double membrane bilayer derived from the outer and the inner membrane, respectively. Due to their origin, OIMVs carry, besides membrane components, also cytoplasmic components including DNA (Pérez-Cruz et al., 2015; Toyofuku et al., 2019) and has been thus proposed as major vesicles type involved in the DNA transfer (Toyofuku et al., 2019). OIMVs have been suggested to result from an explosive cell lysis triggered by a phage-derived endolysin that degrades the cell wall peptidoglycan (Turnbull et al., 2016); by reassembling of fragments of the outer and inner membrane of the lysed cells OIMVs arise, whereas reassembling of outer membrane fragments gives rise to so called explosive OMVs (EOMVs) (Turnbull et al., 2016; Toyofuku et al., 2019). The observation of OIMVs and EOMVs formation after bacterial treatment with SOS response-triggering agents such as ciprofloxacin and mitomycin C (Turnbull et al., 2016; Devos et al.,
OMVs as an Alternative Secretion System: Type-0 Secretion System
Besides the well-established secretion-systems 1-6, OMVs have been recently considered as a new independent type-0 secretion system (T0SS) (Guerrero-Mandujano et al.,
OMV-Associated Toxins and Other Virulence Factors From Intestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli
Intestinal pathogenic E. coli such as ETEC and EHEC produce OMVs under laboratory conditions as well as during infection (Wai et al., 1995; Kolling and Matthews,
Table 1
| Type of pathogenic E. coli | OMV associated virulence factor | Function | Association with OMV | Vesicle formation | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enterotoxigenic E. coli | Heat labile enterotoxin (LT) | Cytotoxicity | Internal and external | Blebbing | Horstman and Kuehn, |
| (ETEC) | Kesty et al., | ||||
| EtpA | T-Cell stimulating Protein/Adhesin | Not determined | Not determined | Roy et al., 2010 | |
| CexE | Adhesin | Not determined | Not determined | Roy et al., 2011 | |
| TibA | Autotransport/Adhesin | Not determined | Not determined | Roy et al., 2010 | |
| Flagellin | Not determined | External | Not determined | Roy et al., 2010 | |
| Enterohemorrhagic E. coli | Shiga toxin 1 | Cytotoxicity, Apoptosis | Not determined | Not determined | Yokoyama et al., 2000 |
| (EHEC) | Shiga toxin 2 | Cytotoxicity, Apoptosis | Internal | Blebbing | Kolling and Matthews, |
| Cytolysin A (ClyA) | Cytotoxicity | Not determined | Blebbing | Wai et al., 2003 | |
| Shigella enterotoxin 1 (ShET1) | Unknown | Internal | Blebbing | Kunsmann et al., | |
| EHEC hemolysin | Apoptosis | External | Blebbing | Bielaszewska et al., | |
| Cytolethal distending toxin V | Cell cycle arrest, apoptosis | Internal | Blebbing | Bielaszewska et al., | |
| Flagellin | Proinflammatory (IL-8 secretion) | External | Blebbing | Kunsmann et al., | |
| Outer membrane protease OmpT | Protection against antimicrobial Peptides | Internal | Not determined | Urashima et al., 2017 | |
| Lipopolysaccharide | Proinflammatory (IL-8 secretion) | Integral | Blebbing | Kunsmann et al., |
Overview of virulence factors associated with OMVs from intestinal pathogenic E. coli.
Information on vesicle formation and association of virulence factors are based on electron microscopy. Formation of vesicles and the proportions of different vesicle types in the culture, even of the same bacterium might differ dependent on culture conditions.
OMV-Mediated Delivery of Toxins and Other Virulence Factors From ETEC
ETEC are leading causes of traveler's diarrhea and childhood diarrhea in developing countries (Fleckenstein and Kuhlmann,
OMV-Mediated Delivery of Toxins and Other Virulence Factors From EHEC
EHEC are worldwide causes of diarrhea and its severe extraintestinal complication, the hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) (Karch et al.,
Figure 2

Summary of intracellular trafficking of EHEC O157 OMVs and OMV-delivered toxins (based on Bielaszewska et al.,
Besides their endothelial cytotoxicity, EHEC OMVs induce secretion of IL-8 from human intestinal epithelial cells (Kunsmann et al.,
Outlook
The roles of ETEC and EHEC OMVs as carriers for virulence factors and tools for their delivery into the host cells, together with OMV abilities to elicit immune responses against the major virulence proteins lead to attempts to exploit OMVs as vaccine candidates. OMVs are promising components of vaccines since they combine the antigen and adjuvant in a single formulation. A vaccine based on OMVs of a major EHEC serotype O157:H7 was found to protect against EHEC-mediated pathology in a mouse model and to be immunogenic in calves (Fingermann et al.,
The progress of development of OMV-based ETEC vaccines is more advanced than in EHEC. ETEC OMVs contain both confirmed and probable ETEC virulence factors (Table 1), which are highly immunogenic (Roy et al., 2010, 2011). Several studies with differently prepared OMVs from various strains demonstrated the immunogenic as well as protective effects of such vaccines in animal models (Roy et al., 2011; Leitner et al.,
Statements
Author contributions
All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.
Funding
The work in the laboratory of the authors has been supported by grants of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (DFG RU 1884/2-1, DFG RU 1884/3-1, CRC1009 TP B03, and B04), and NIH (RO1 1R56AR072594-01A1).
Acknowledgments
We apologize to all our colleagues whose excellent contributions to this important topic could not be considered due to space limitations. We are grateful to Lilo Greune (Institute of Infectiology, Center for Molecular Biology of Inflammation—ZMBE, University of Munster) for support of exemplary electron microscopy pictures of OMVs shown in Figure 1. We like to thank all the past and present members of the Institute of Infectiology—ZMBE, and the Institute for Hygiene for their valuable contributions.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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Summary
Keywords
outer membrane vesicles, intestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli, EHEC, ETEC, virulence factors, toxins
Citation
Rueter C and Bielaszewska M (2020) Secretion and Delivery of Intestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli Virulence Factors via Outer Membrane Vesicles. Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol. 10:91. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2020.00091
Received
13 December 2019
Accepted
21 February 2020
Published
06 March 2020
Volume
10 - 2020
Edited by
Tânia Aparecida Tardelli Gomes, Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil
Reviewed by
Toru Tobe, Osaka University, Japan; Sivapriya Kailasan Vanaja, University of Connecticut, United States
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© 2020 Rueter and Bielaszewska.
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*Correspondence: Christian Rueter rueterc@uni-muenster.de
This article was submitted to Bacteria and Host, a section of the journal Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
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