Iron is a growth factor for many microbes, and its availability is critical for the course of infections. A new study uncovers a mechanism by which extracellular vesicles released by macrophages withdraw iron from the blood, thereby limiting iron access for bacteria and improving outcomes from sepsis.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Sheldon, J. R., Laakso, H. A. & Heinrichs, D. E. Iron acquisition strategies of bacterial pathogens. Microbiol. Spectr. https://doi.org/10.1128/microbiolspec.VMBF-0010-2015 (2016).
Nairz, M. & Weiss, G. Iron in infection and immunity. Mol. Aspects Med. 75, 100864 (2020).
Hood, M. I. & Skaar, E. P. Nutritional immunity: transition metals at the pathogen–host interface. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 10, 525–537 (2012).
Sazawal, S. et al. Effects of routine prophylactic supplementation with iron and folic acid on admission to hospital and mortality in preschool children in a high malaria transmission setting: community-based, randomised, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet 367, 133–143 (2006).
Drakesmith, H. & Prentice, A. M. Hepcidin and the iron–infection axis. Science 338, 768–772 (2012).
Arezes, J. et al. Hepcidin-induced hypoferremia is a critical host defense mechanism against the siderophilic bacterium Vibrio vulnificus. Cell Host Microbe 17, 47–57 (2015).
Soares, M. P. & Hamza, I. Macrophages and iron metabolism. Immunity 44, 492–504 (2016).
Halaas, O. et al. Intracellular Mycobacterium avium intersect transferrin in the Rab11+ recycling endocytic pathway and avoid lipocalin 2 trafficking to the lysosomal pathway. J. Infect. Dis. 201, 783–792 (2010).
Kuang, H. et al. Extracellular vesicle-based humoral regulation of iron metabolism is required for host antibacterial response. Nat. Metab. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-022-00723-5 (2023).
Barber, M. F. & Elde, N. C. Nutritional immunity. Escape from bacterial iron piracy through rapid evolution of transferrin. Science 346, 1362–1366 (2014).
Weiss, G. & Carver, P. L. Role of divalent metals in infectious disease susceptibility and outcome. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. 24, 16–23 (2018).
Brandtner, A. et al. Linkage of alterations in systemic iron homeostasis to patients' outcome in sepsis: a prospective study. J. Intensive Care 8, 76 (2020).
Tacke, F. et al. Iron parameters determine the prognosis of critically ill patients. Crit. Care Med. 44, 1049–1058 (2016).
Sargun, A., Gerner, R. R., Raffatellu, M. & Nolan, E. M. Harnessing iron acquisition machinery to target enterobacteriaceae. J. Infect. Dis. 223, S307–S313 (2021).
Mair, S. M. et al. Nifedipine affects the course of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium infection by modulating macrophage iron homeostasis. J. Infect. Dis. 204, 685–694 (2011).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The author declares no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Weiss, G. Macrophage vesicles starve bacteria of iron. Nat Metab 5, 10–12 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-022-00719-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-022-00719-1
