Microvesicles: Transporter of Proteins in Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Pathogenesis

In current scenario tuberculosis (TB) is a crucial problem of mortality and morbidity which is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) [1]. Recent WHO report of 2015 declared TB as deadly as HIV in accordance with global death rate [2]. M. tuberculosis is an effective intracellular pathogen of alveolar macrophages of lungs where it resides within phagosomes [3]. M. tuberculosis has the capacity to inhibit fusion between phagosome and lysosome due to these bacilli is responsible for dampening the acidification of phagosome which ensures its longevity [4]. The foremost step during bacterial infection is host pathogen interaction which initiate by various antigenic proteins of M. tuberculosis [5]. During infection bacilli releases various mycobacterial antigenic components from phagosome in small membranous vesicles [6]. These vesicles are behaving as transporter or carrier of various virulent proteins which modulate host immune system in its favour [7]. The Microvesicles (MVs) (also can be seen in other literature as the name of ectosomes, shedding bodies, microparticles, oncosomes etc.) are the heterogeneous membrane bound nanovesicles which contains proteins, phospholipids and LPS and also contains some virulence factor like adhesins, toxins and immunomodulatory compounds that are vital for the pathogenesis [8]. Also the composition of MVs depends upon the cell type from which they are originated. MVs are produced by the process of budding and fission of membrane vesicles from the plasma membrane.

Author(s): Laxman S Meena and Ramiza Ansari

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