New Way The Body Fights Fungal
Infection Discovered
ScienceDaily (June 13, 2009) — A team of researchers led by Amy G.
Hise, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor at the Center for Global Health
and Diseases, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, is the
first to discover how the body fights off oral yeast infections caused by
the most common human fungal pathogen, Candida.
As fungal infections become
more resistant to current drugs, this groundbreaking research may directly
lead to the development of new drugs and therapies that will help limit
and/or prevent Candida infections in the future for millions of sufferers.
Candida albicans is the most
common species of the Candida fungus and is the leading cause of vaginal
and oral yeast infections, including thrush and denture stomatitis. It is
the fourth most common hospital acquired bloodborne pathogen in the United
States and surprisingly, it is present in the mouths of 30 to 50 percent
of healthy adults.
Because of the widespread
nature of Candida, the potential for overgrowth and infection is common in
the young, elderly, immuno-compromised and people receiving corticosteroid
or chemotherapy treatments.
The findings, published in
Cell, Host and Microbe, identified the critical role of a protein,
interleukin-1β or IL-1β, secreted by a variety of cells in the human
immune system to protect the body from oral colonization by Candida
albicans and preventing it from spreading to infect host tissue and blood.
The study defines the precise mechanism by which the body's immune cells
produce IL-1β following contact with Candida albicans. Further, it shows
that a complex of proteins, collectively termed the NLRP3 inflammasome,
function to produce IL-1β from an inactive, precursor form into a form
that can be secreted by cells and subsequently function to modulate the
immune system and its responses.
This research clarifies a
number of mechanisms and pathways that may be therapeutic targets to help
alleviate and/or eliminate Candida overgrowth and its accompanying
symptoms, such as pain and discomfort, swelling, burning sensation of
affected area, difficulty swallowing, in individuals suffering from
infections.
The findings of Dr. Hise's
laboratory will open many new avenues of research in fungal infections.
One direction they are pursuing is to identify the way that the fungus
activates the inflammasome. This might provide new targets for drug
development. Another area of interest is the investigation of how small
differences between individuals in immune related genes, called single
nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs, affect susceptibility to fungal and
other infections.
"If we can identify patterns of
SNPs that make people more likely to develop life-threatening fungal
infections, it may be possible in the future to use these as markers to
screen patients. For example, patients admitted to intensive care units or
needing long-term invasive catheters could be genetically screened to
identify who would benefit from preventive anti-fungal treatment," says
Dr. Hise.
Adapted
from materials provided by
Case Western Reserve University, via
EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. |
