Evaluation of the effects of extracellular vesicles derived from Faecalibacterium prausnitzii on lung cancer cell line

Recently, the effect of intestinal microbiota on the lungs has been reported in several studies as the gut-lung axis, which interferes with inflammatory processes through the translocation of bacterial products across the gastrointestinal tract barrier into blood vessels. In numerous studies, the anti-inflammatory properties of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii strains have been reported both in vivo and in vitro. In this process, the secretion of bioactive molecules with anti-inflammatory effects is one of the strategies that the bacterium uses. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have drawn the attention of scientists due to their role in cell-to-cell communication either locally or over long distances. In this study, we evaluated the effects of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii supernatant and EVs on the expression profile of cytokines and chemokines by using lung cancer cell line (A549). Principal analysis showed that the bacterial supernatant and derived EVs were able to dysregulate the expression of some specific cytokines. However, the response of bacterium-secreted EVs was more significant compared to the bacterial supernatant for some key cytokines. The secreted EVs significantly could upregulate anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-10, TGF-β2 and IL-1Ra). On the other hand, F. prausnitzii EVs could downregulate some of the important pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6, TNF-α and TNF-β.