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What makes a fungus virulent? It's lipase
September 14, 2007Infection with the fungus Candida parapsilosis is a major problem for individuals in intensive care units, as well as for premature infants and immunocompromised adults. Despite this, little is known about which of its genes account for its virulence. New insight into the virulence mechanisms of C. parapsilosis has now been provided by Attila Gacserand colleagues at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, who have developed a new way to eliminate genes in C. parapsilosis.
In the study, growth in lipid-rich media of C. parapsilosis engineered to lack lipase activity was shown to be dramatically reduced compared with the growth of normal C. parapsilosis. Furthermore, the mutant fungi were more easily destroyed in vitro by macrophage cell lines and were less virulent when used to infect human cells in vitro and mice in vivo. These data have demonstrated that C. parapsilosis lipase is an important virulence factor for this pathogen and led the authors to suggest that developing drugs that target this lipase might be of therapeutic benefit to individuals who become infected with C. parapsilosis.
Journal of Clinical Investigation
Grant award for First Study of Emerging Yeast Species
An emerging species of yeast, Candida parapsilosis is causing increasing numbers of infections because it spreads easily from medical devices into the blood stream of patients. Science Foundation Ireland has recently awarded almost EUR1 million to Dr. Geraldine Butler of the Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research, Dublin for her pioneering studies of this yeast. As the yeast grows on the plastic surface of catheters, heart valves or intravenous lines, it forms a thin film called a biofilm, which is difficult to destroy even with antifungal drugs. Infection with yeast can be life threatening in newborn babies, the elderly or any patient whose immune system is not strong eno
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