Candida albicans. Credit score: Wikipedia.
About 80% of individuals have the fungus Candida albicans of their intestine. Though more often than not it persists unnoticed for years, inflicting no well being issues, C. albicans can flip right into a harmful microbe that causes critical illnesses in lots of organs, together with the urinary tract, lungs and mind. Understanding how this fungus colonizes the intestine is essential to stopping it from turning into dangerous.
Working with a mouse mannequin, researchers at Baylor School of Drugs and worldwide collaborators have found sudden components that assist C. albicans settle and persist within the intestine. The findings increase our information of the fungus-gut interactions and supply potential options to scale back colonization. The research appeared in Microbiology Spectrum.
“Our study revealed unexpected findings,” mentioned first writer Kelsey Mauk, a graduate scholar within the lab of Dr. David Corry at Baylor.
“Most previous studies were conducted in mice that had been treated with antibiotics or drugs to suppress the immune system before introducing C. albicans. The assumption was that infection would not be possible without those treatments.”
Mauk, Corry and their colleagues explored how C. albicans colonizes the intestine below wholesome, unmodified situations, which mirror real-life situations. They have been anticipating that C. albicans wouldn’t be capable to colonize the animal’s intestine.
To their shock, they discovered {that a} medical pressure, referred to as CLCA10, may persist within the mouse intestine for at the very least 58 days with out inflicting weight reduction, irritation or disrupting the intestine’s bacterial steadiness. Moreover, therapy with antifungal remedy diminished, however didn’t remove the fungus.
The fungus remained principally related to the intestine’s contents and the mucus layer. In wholesome mice, different human-associated fungal species didn’t colonize the intestine, suggesting that one thing completely different about C. albicans affected its means to determine itself within the intestine.
The researchers have been anticipating to determine components within the mouse, equivalent to intercourse, food regimen or business sources, that will affect the power of C. albicans to colonize.
“It turned out that none of these factors affected the ability of the fungus to establish itself in the gut,” Mauk mentioned. “C. albicans can make itself at home under many different conditions.”
The crew additionally anticipated that components linked to C. albicans, such because the manufacturing of a brief protein or peptide toxin referred to as candidalysin, wouldn’t favor colonization. Candidalysin is a significant contributor to C. albicans virulence. This toxin is secreted by C. albicans hyphae, a thread-like type of the fungus; it damages host cells and triggers inflammatory immune responses.
“We thought that candidalysin would not contribute to C. albicans colonization because it triggers strong responses in the gut,” Mauk mentioned. “The experiments blew away our expectations. It turned out that candidalysin as well as two other hypha-associated proteins—adhesins Als3 and Hwp1—were necessary for the fungus to take root and persist in the gut. Mice infected with strains lacking these proteins had much lower levels of fungal colonization.”
“This study shows that C. albicans gut colonization in the mouse is critically dependent on fungal hyphal factors,” mentioned Corry, Fulbright Endowed Chair in Pathology, Immunology and Drugs and member of the Dan L Duncan Complete Most cancers Middle at Baylor.
“Therapeutically targeting these factors could enhance strategies to reduce C. albicans gut colonization and the intractable threat to human health it represents.”
Different contributors to this work embrace Pedro Miramón, Michael C. Lorenz, Léa Lortal, Julian R. Naglik, Bernhard Hube, Lynn Bimler and Farrah Kheradmand.
Extra info:
Commensal Colonization of Candida albicans within the Mouse Gastrointestinal Tract Is Mediated Through Expression of Candidalysin and Adhesins, Microbiology Spectrum (2025).
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How the widespread fungus Candida albicans colonizes the intestine (2025, July 30)
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