PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

How a deadly fungus evades the immune system

2015-03-31
(Press-News.org) New research from the University of Toronto has scientists re-thinking how a lethal fungus grows and kills immune cells. The study hints at a new approach to therapy for Candida albicans, one of the most common causes of bloodstream infections.

Previously, scientists thought that Candida albicans spread by changing from a single, round cell to a long string of cells, or filaments. They thought this shape change allowed the fungus to move through the bloodstream and let its filaments penetrate tissues and destroy immune cells.

But the new study, published today in Nature Communications, shows that a little bit of sugar on the surface of fungal cells triggers the death of immune cells that would otherwise kill the fungus.

"It's not the shape-change per se that enables the fungus to kill the immune cell, but what happens along with it," says Professor Leah Cowen, lead researcher on the study who holds the Canada Research Chair in Microbial Genomics and Infectious Disease in U of T's Department of Molecular Genetics. "The addition of glycosylated proteins, which are proteins with a sugar attached, re-models the surface of the fungal cells."

Cowen and her lab found that Candida albicans can kill immune cells even after its cells have died. They let immune cells called macrophages consume the fungus, and after an hour they removed the fungal cells from the macrophages. Then they exposed new macrophages to fungal cells that had been consumed and those that had not, and they compared the results.

"The fungal cells that were never internalized by macrophages couldn't kill the fresh macrophages, but those that had been inside a macrophage could kill beautifully," says Cowen. That finding was a clue. The researchers reasoned that the change in the fungal cells that turned them into killers was probably on their surface, since dead cells have no active internal processes.

The researchers then used an enzyme called Endo H to snip off sugars on the glycosylated proteins attached to the dead fungal cells. The change completely blocked the ability of the fungus to kill -- a strong lead on a new and needed therapeutic strategy for Candida albicans.

Globally, fungi kill more than 1.5 million people a year. In the U.S., Candida fungi account for almost 90 per cent of hospital-acquired fungal infections, and in Canada they're the third most common cause of bloodstream infections in intensive care units. More than 40 per cent of people with a systemic Candida albicans infection will die.

A therapy that targets the ability of fungal cells to outfox the immune system would be promising, says Cowen, because it might minimize effects on healthy microbes and avoid spurring drug resistance.

As well, some anti-fungals in development -- including one in Cowen's lab -- are hindered because the target proteins are present in both fungi and humans. That means a drug has to distinguish between the fungal and human versions of the target. "If you develop a drug that targets something that's only found in fungi, it's less likely to have side effects in a human," says Cowen.

In her Nature Communications study, Cowen used a powerful Candida albicans mutant library, which the pharmaceutical company Merck recently made public. The library let Cowen and her team test the function of almost all genes in the Candida albicans genome, where before they could test just 10 per cent. "It really let us approach this pathogen from a holistic perspective and evaluate the role of all its genes in disease," says Cowen.

The researchers used the library to do the first genome-scale analysis of the fungus's ability to change shape and grow, and they discovered more than 800 regulators of this process, which they published today with their other findings.

"It's cool because we have a ton of new biology to explore, hundreds of possible drug targets and a new appreciation of how fungal pathogens interact with immune systems," says Cowen. "It's been a lot of fun."

INFORMATION:



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Generous welfare benefits make people more likely to want to work, not less

2015-03-31
Survey responses from 19,000 people in 18 European countries, including the UK, showed that "the notion that big welfare states are associated with widespread cultures of dependency, or other adverse consequences of poor short term incentives to work, receives little support." Sociologists Dr Kjetil van der Wel and Dr Knut Halvorsen examined responses to the statement 'I would enjoy having a paid job even if I did not need the money' put to the interviewees for the European Social Survey in 2010. In a paper published in the journal Work, employment and society they ...

Kids allowed to 'sip' alcohol may start drinking earlier

2015-03-31
PISCATAWAY, NJ - Children who get a taste of their parents' wine now and then may be more likely than their peers to start drinking by high school, according to a new report in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. Researchers found that, of 561 students in a long-term study, those who'd "sipped" alcohol by sixth grade were five times more likely than their peers to down a full drink by the time they were in high school. And they were four times more likely to have binged or been drunk. The findings do not prove that early sips of alcohol are to blame, said lead ...

Ob/Gyn experts recommend 'ultrasound first' for imaging the female pelvis

2015-03-31
Philadelphia, PA, March 31, 2015 - Ultrasound technology has evolved dramatically in recent years. A group of noted obstetricians and gynecologists maintain that ultrasound is more cost-effective and safer than other imaging modalities for imaging the female pelvis and should be the first imaging modality used for patients with pelvic symptoms. Writing in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and supporting an American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM at http://www.AIUM.org) initiative, they urge practitioners to "put ultrasound first." In 2012, the ...

Innovative strategies needed to address the US transplant organ shortage

2015-03-31
As the United States faces transplant waiting lists that continue to grow longer over time, there is increasing debate about the proper way to incentivize living donations. Transplant professionals are trying to find ways to eliminate any financial disincentives without crossing the line to paying for organs. A new article published in the American Journal of Transplantation highlights possible solutions discussed by leaders within the American Society of Transplantation (AST) and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) at a recent workshop. Due to organ shortages, ...

Impact of domestic violence on women's mental health

2015-03-31
This news release is available in French. In addition to their physical injuries, women who are victims of domestic violence are also at a greater risk of mental health problems such as depression and psychotic symptoms. These are the findings of a study that was just published by a team of researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London in England, the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal (IUSMM), and the University of Montreal. "We studied the impact of domestic violence on the risk of mental ...

Wearable technology can help with public speaking

2015-03-30
Speaking in public is the top fear for many people. Now, researchers from the Human-Computer Interaction Group at the University of Rochester have developed an intelligent user interface for "smart glasses" that gives real-time feedback to the speaker on volume modulation and speaking rate, while being minimally distracting. The Rochester team describes the system, which they have called Rhema after the Greek word for "utterance," in a paper that will be presented on Tuesday, March 31 at the Association for Computer Machinery's Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI) conference ...

UH Case Medical Center study looks at social media impact on mental healthcare & treatment

2015-03-30
CLEVELAND - Tweet it. Snap it. Pin it. Post it...or however else you want to share it with the masses scouring the Internet searching for common ground connectivity. But, should doctors peer behind the privacy curtain of potential patients to help avert or discover more severe problems? University Hospitals Case Medical Center Psychiatrist Stephanie Pope, MD, examined the impact of social media on mental health care and treatment. She specifically investigated how the public forums could help diagnoses in clinical practice as well as serving as behavioral predictors. ...

3-D human skin maps aid study of relationships between molecules, microbes and environment

3-D human skin maps aid study of relationships between molecules, microbes and environment
2015-03-30
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences used information collected from hundreds of skin swabs to produce three-dimensional maps of molecular and microbial variations across the body. These maps provide a baseline for future studies of the interplay between the molecules that make up our skin, the microbes that live on us, our personal hygiene routines and other environmental factors. The study, published March 30 by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may help further our understanding of ...

UF study finds vitamin D can affect pain, movement in obese osteoarthritis patients

2015-03-30
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Got milk? If you are overweight and have osteoarthritis, you may want to bone up on your dairy products that have vitamin D. According to a University of Florida study, higher levels of vitamin D may decrease pain and improve function in obese individuals with osteoarthritis. Findings published in the January issue of The Clinical Journal of Pain indicate that obese individuals who suffer from osteoarthritis and have adequate vitamin D levels could walk, balance and rise from sitting to standing better than obese participants with insufficient vitamin ...

From tobacco to cyberwood

2015-03-30
Humans have been inspired by nature since the beginning of time. We mimic nature to develop new technologies, with examples ranging from machinery to pharmaceuticals to new materials. Planes are modelled on birds and many drugs have their origins in plants. Researchers at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering have taken it a step further: in order to develop an extremely sensitive temperature sensor they took a close look at temperature-sensitive plants. However, they did not mimic the properties of the plants; instead, they developed a hybrid material that ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Thirty-year mystery of dissonance in the “ringing” of black holes explained

Less intensive works best for agricultural soil

Arctic rivers project receives “national champion” designation from frontiers foundation

Computational biology paves the way for new ALS tests

Study offers new hope for babies born with opioid withdrawal syndrome

UT, Volkswagen Group of America celebrate research partnership

New Medicare program could dramatically improve affordability for cancer drugs – if patients enroll

Are ‘zombie’ skin cells harmful or helpful? The answer may be in their shapes

University of Cincinnati Cancer Center presents research at AACR 2025

Head and neck, breast, lung and survivorship studies headline Dana-Farber research at AACR Annual Meeting 2025

AACR: Researchers share promising results from MD Anderson clinical trials

New research explains why our waistlines expand in middle age

Advancements in muon detection: Taishan Antineutrino Observatory's innovative top veto tracker

Chips off the old block

Microvascular decompression combined with nerve combing for atypical trigeminal neuralgia

Cutting the complexity from digital carpentry

Lung immune cell type “quietly” controls inflammation in COVID-19

Fiscal impact of expanded Medicare coverage for GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat obesity

State and sociodemographic trends in US cigarette smoking with future projections

Young adults drive historic decline in smoking

NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research

Chimpanzee stem cells offer new insights into early embryonic development

This injected protein-like polymer helps tissues heal after a heart attack

FlexTech inaugural issue launches, pioneering interdisciplinary innovation in flexible technology

In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity

Methyl eugenol: potential to inhibit oxidative stress, address related diseases, and its toxicological effects

A vascularized multilayer chip reveals shear stress-induced angiogenesis in diverse fluid conditions

AI helps unravel a cause of Alzheimer's disease and identify a therapeutic candidate

Coalition of Autism Scientists critiques US Department of Health and Human Services Autism Research Initiative

Structure dictates effectiveness, safety in nanomedicine

[Press-News.org] How a deadly fungus evades the immune system