Bacteria- and host-derived extracellular vesicles – two sides of the same coin?

Intracellular bacterial pathogens spend portions of their life cycle both inside and outside host cells. While in these two distinct environments, they release or shed bacterial components, including virulence factors that promote their survival and replication. Some of these components are released through extracellular vesicles, which are either derived from the bacteria themselves or from the host cells. Bacteria- and host-derived vesicles have been studied almost exclusively in isolation from each other, with little discussion of the other type of secreted vesicles, despite the fact that both are generated during an in vivo infection and both are likely play a role in bacterial pathogenesis and host immunity. In this Review, we aim to bridge this gap and discuss what we know of bacterial membrane vesicles in their generation and composition. We will compare and contrast this with the composition of host-derived vesicles with regard to bacterial components. We will also compare host cell responses to the different vesicles, with a focus on how these vesicles modulate the immune response, using Mycobacterium, Listeria and Salmonella as specific examples for these comparisons.