Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, United States.
Front Immunol. 2021 Sep 20;12:733064. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.733064. eCollection 2021.
Bacterial outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are nanometer-scale, spherical vehicles released by Gram-negative bacteria into their surroundings throughout growth. These OMVs have been demonstrated to play key roles in pathogenesis by delivering certain biomolecules to host cells, including toxins and other virulence factors. In addition, this biomolecular delivery function enables OMVs to facilitate intra-bacterial communication processes, such as quorum sensing and horizontal gene transfer. The unique ability of OMVs to deliver large biomolecules across the complex Gram-negative cell envelope has inspired the use of OMVs as antibiotic delivery vehicles to overcome transport limitations. In this review, we describe the advantages, applications, and biotechnological challenges of using OMVs as antibiotic delivery vehicles, studying both natural and engineered antibiotic applications of OMVs. We argue that OMVs hold great promise as antibiotic delivery vehicles, an urgently needed application to combat the growing threat of antibiotic resistance.
细菌外膜囊泡（OMVs）是纳米级的球形载体，在生长过程中革兰氏阴性菌将其释放到周围环境中。这些 OMV 已被证明通过将某些生物分子递送给宿主细胞，包括毒素和其他毒力因子，在发病机制中发挥关键作用。此外，这种生物分子传递功能使 OMV 能够促进细菌内部的通信过程，如群体感应和水平基因转移。OMVs 能够将大生物分子递送到复杂的革兰氏阴性细胞包膜中的独特能力，激发了将 OMV 用作抗生素传递载体的使用，以克服运输限制。在这篇综述中，我们描述了将 OMV 用作抗生素传递载体的优势、应用和生物技术挑战，研究了 OMV 在天然和工程抗生素应用中的应用。我们认为，OMVs 作为抗生素传递载体具有巨大的应用前景，这是对抗日益严重的抗生素耐药性威胁的迫切需要的应用。
