Extracellular vesicles of pathogenic microorganisms: friend or foe? / 中华检验医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Extracellular vesicles (EV) are lipid bilayer vesicles with a diameter of 30-1000 nm secreted by cells or microorganisms, which are abundant in proteins, nucleic acids, lipids and other biological information molecules. Therefore, EV can be used as a carrier, transferring materials between cells. At present, in infectious diseases, EV derived from pathogenic microorganisms could be considered as a double-edged sword, which means it can not only play a negative role in the host′s infection immunity, bacteria′s pathogenicity and antibiotic resistance transmission, but also manifest the advantages in clinical diagnosis and treatment.