A Fungal Sterylglucosidase at the Intersection of Virulence, Host Immunity, and Therapeutic Development

ABSTRACT Human fungal infections (mycoses) cause significant morbidity and mortality in high-risk populations. Contemporary antifungal therapies rely heavily on three classes of antifungal drugs, and to date, no fungal vaccine is in clinical use for invasive mycosis. A major gap in knowledge related to fungal vaccine development is identifying lasting mechanisms of protective immunity in immunocompromised individuals. Recent studies in Cryptococcus neoformans and now Aspergillus fumigatus have identified a fungal sterylglucosidase essential for pathogenesis and virulence in murine models of mycoses. Fungal strains deficient in this sterylglucosidase can surprisingly also induce substantial immune-mediated protection against subsequent challenge with wild-type strains in multiple immunocompromised murine models of mycoses. Here, I discuss the implications and future directions of these exciting and impactful results.

Abstract licence: CC BY

1. 2.

   A Sterol-Regulatory Element Binding Protein Is Required for Cell Polarity, Hypoxia Adaptation, Azole Drug Resistance, and Virulence in Aspergillus fumigatus · 2008

2. 3.

   Aspergillus Galactosaminogalactan Mediates Adherence to Host Constituents and Conceals Hyphal β-Glucan from the Immune System · 2013

3. 4.

   In vivo Hypoxia and a Fungal Alcohol Dehydrogenase Influence the Pathogenesis of Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis · 2011

20 more references, whose wording the paper’s licence keeps private.

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.