V. cholerae is the etiologic
agent of cholera with the cholera toxin (CT) acting as the
major virulence factor of this pathogen. CT is found in the
periplasm and also associated with the bacterial surface.
Chatterjee and Chaudhuri demonstrated that the CT is not
only secreted in a soluble form, but also it is associated
with OMVs purified from V. cholerae strain O395. They
also found using a CHO cell assay that OMVs were associated
with a physiologically active CT, and OMVs could
interact with intestinal epithelial cells via CT-receptor.
This evidence identified V. cholerae OMVs as a vehicle for
delivering CT to epithelial cells