New research uncovers how life-threatening fungal diseases adapt to survive in humans
A new study from the Westmead Medical Research Institute has revealed the conservation of phosphates in the development of serious fungal infections by conserving phosphate, highlighting a potential target for treatment.
Cryptococcus neoformans is a potentially life-threatening fungal disease that infects people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and organ transplant recipients. The fungus needs phosphate to grow and maintain an infection in its host, the latter being essential for functions such as cell division.
Researchers have discovered that Cryptococcus neoformans remodels lipids - fatty acids in the cell membrane - in low-phosphate environments to release phosphate.
Principal investigator, Associate Professor Julie Djordjevic, said, "This is the first time this phosphate conservation strategy is described in a human fungal pathogen.
"Fungi suffer from phosphate starvation when they infect humans, but fungal infections are smart enough and have unique strategies for storing phosphate when it becomes rare.
"We have found that Cryptococcus neoformans stores phosphate by activating a gene, BTA1, which encodes an enzyme that produces betaine lipids.The production of these betaine lipids allows the fungal pathogen to recycle it from the lipids it produces. normally, which allows him to survive and spread.
Fungi lacking the BTA1 gene grew more slowly than the cells carrying the gene and were less likely to cause disease in animal infection patterns, indicating the critical role of phosphate conservation in the development of Cryptococcus neoformans. "
Cryptococcus neoformans initially infects the lungs, where it can spread to the brain, causing the life-threatening disease, cryptococcal meningitis. Invasive fungal diseases, including those caused by Cryptococcus neoformans, cause an estimated 1.6 million deaths worldwide each year.
Associate Professor Julie Djordjevic said that high mortality rates are partly due to the lack of new treatments.
"The growing emergence of drug-resistant fungi strains, as well as the lack of effective existing treatments, means that we need new treatments to fight invasive fungal diseases.
"Now that we understand how Cryptococcus neoformans retains phosphate, we can study how we can prevent this process from occurring in order to stop the growth and spread of infection."
