Schistosoma Mansoni Infection Affects the Proteome and Lipidome of Circulating Extracellular Vesicles in the Host

Eggs, schistosomula and adult Schistosoma worms are known to release extracellular vesicles (EV) during in vitro incubations and these EVs are postulated to affect the host responses. So far only those EVs released during in vitro incubations of schistosomes have been studied and it is unknown whether in blood of infected hosts the schistosomal EVs can be detected amidst all the circulating EVs of the host itself. In this study we analyzed the protein as well as the phospholipid composition of EVs circulating in blood plasma of S. mansoni infected hamsters and compared those with the EVs circulating in blood of non-infected hamsters. Although neither proteins nor lipids specific for schistosomes could be detected in the circulating EVs of the infected hamsters, the infection with schistosomes had a marked effect on the circulating EVs of the host, as the protein as well as the lipid composition of EVs circulating in infected hamsters were different from the EVs of uninfected hamsters. The observed changes in the EV lipid and protein content suggest that more EVs are released by the diseased liver, the affected erythrocytes and activated immune cells.