scholarly journals Contribution of Dectin-1 to the Recognition of Fungal Cell Wall Products and the Activation of Innate Immune Response

2006 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshiyuki Adachi ◽  
Naohito Ohno
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camaron R. Hole ◽  
Woei C. Lam ◽  
Rajendra Upadhya ◽  
Jennifer K. Lodge

ABSTRACTCryptococcus neoformans infections are significant causes of morbidity and mortality among AIDS patients and the third most common invasive fungal infection in organ transplant recipients. One of the main interfaces between the fungus and the host is the fungal cell wall. The cryptococcal cell wall is unusual among human pathogenic fungi in that the chitin is predominantly deacetylated to chitosan. Chitosan deficient strains of C. neoformans were found to be avirulent and rapidly cleared from the murine lung. Moreover, infection with a chitosan deficient C. neoformans lacking three chitin deacetylases (cda1Δ2Δ3Δ) was found to confer protective immunity to a subsequent challenge with a virulent wild type counterpart. In addition to the chitin deacetylases, it was previously shown that chitin synthase 3 (Chs3) is also essential for chitin deacetylase mediated formation of chitosan. Mice inoculated with chs3Δ at a dose previously shown to induce protection with cda1Δ2Δ3Δ die within 36 hours after installation of the organism. Mortality was not dependent on viable fungi as mice inoculated with heat-killed preparation of chs3Δ died at the same rate as mice inoculated with live chs3Δ, suggesting the rapid onset of death was host mediated likely caused by an over exuberant immune response. Histology, cytokine profiling, and flow cytometry indicates a massive neutrophil influx in the mice inoculated with chs3Δ. Mice depleted of neutrophils survived chs3Δ inoculation indicating that death was neutrophil mediated. Altogether, these studies lead us to conclude that Chs3, along with chitosan, plays critical roles in dampening cryptococcal induced host inflammatory responses.IMPORTANCECryptococcus neoformans is the most common disseminated fungal pathogen in AIDS patients, resulting in ∼200,000 deaths each year. There is a pressing need for new treatments for this infection, as current antifungal therapy is hampered by toxicity and/or the inability of the host’s immune system to aid in resolution of the disease. An ideal target for new therapies is the fungal cell wall. The cryptococcal cell wall is different than many other pathogenic fungi in that it contains chitosan. Strains that have decreased chitosan are less pathogenic and strains that are deficient in chitosan are avirulent and can induce protective responses. In this study we investigated the host responses to chs3Δ, a chitosan-deficient strain, and found mice inoculated with chs3Δ all died within 36 hours and death was associated with an aberrant hyperinflammatory immune response driven by neutrophils, indicating that chitosan is critical in modulating the immune response to Cryptococcus.


2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart M. Levitz ◽  
Charles A. Specht

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Genova ◽  
James Melnyk ◽  
Vishnu Mohanan ◽  
Catherine Grimes

2020 ◽  
Vol 295 (29) ◽  
pp. 10032-10044 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aparna Tripathi ◽  
Elisabetta Liverani ◽  
Alexander Y. Tsygankov ◽  
Sumant Puri

Fungal pathogen Candida albicans has a complex cell wall consisting of an outer layer of mannans and an inner layer of β-glucans and chitin. The fungal cell wall is the primary target for antifungals and is recognized by host immune cells. Environmental conditions such as carbon sources, pH, temperature, and oxygen tension can modulate the fungal cell wall architecture. Cellular signaling pathways, including the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways, are responsible for sensing environmental cues and mediating cell wall alterations. Although iron has recently been shown to affect β-1,3-glucan exposure on the cell wall, we report here that iron changes the composition of all major C. albicans cell wall components. Specifically, high iron decreased the levels of mannans (including phosphomannans) and chitin; and increased β-1,3-glucan levels. These changes increased the resistance of C. albicans to cell wall-perturbing antifungals. Moreover, high iron cells exhibited adequate mitochondrial functioning; leading to a reduction in accumulation of lactate that signals through the transcription factor Crz1 to induce β-1,3-glucan masking in C. albicans. We show here that iron-induced changes in β-1,3-glucan exposure are lactate-dependent; and high iron causes β-1,3-glucan exposure by preventing lactate-induced, Crz1-mediated inhibition of activation of the fungal MAPK Cek1. Furthermore, despite exhibiting enhanced antifungal resistance, high iron C. albicans cells had reduced survival upon phagocytosis by macrophages. Our results underscore the role of iron as an environmental signal in multiple signaling pathways that alter cell wall architecture in C. albicans, thereby affecting its survival upon exposure to antifungals and host immune response.


mSphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Sze Wah Wong ◽  
Vadim B. Krylov ◽  
Dmitry A. Argunov ◽  
Alexander A. Karelin ◽  
Jean-Phillipe Bouchara ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Methodologies to identify epitopes or ligands of the fungal cell wall polysaccharides influencing the immune response of human pathogens have to date been imperfect. Using the galactomannan (GM) of Aspergillus fumigatus as a model, we have shown that synthetic oligosaccharides of distinct structures representing key fragments of cell wall polysaccharides are the most precise tools to study the serological and immunomodulatory properties of a fungal polysaccharide.


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