MELBOURNE, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Scientists have discovered how the world's deadliest fungi explode immune cells and shape-shift to defeat the human immune system, providing new avenues for treatments and drug discovery.
Two studies focused on Candida auris and Candida albicans, microscopic fungi that cause life-threatening human infections, opening the door for treatments and antifungal drug discovery by identifying the nutrients the fungi and immune cells use to battle each other, according to a statement released Thursday by Australia's Monash University.
The study published in Nature Communications identified the naturally occurring amino acid alanine that reverses the process these fungi use to defeat the immune system.
When an immune cell swallows a fungal microbe to destroy it, the fungus can trigger a host protein called Ninjurin to form large pores, causing the immune cell to explode and release the fungal cells to spread the infection, researchers said, adding that higher doses of alanine blocked the protein and prevented the immune cells from bursting, thereby containing the fungal cells.
The second study, published in Nature Microbiology, discovered the shape-shifting ability of the mysterious Candida auris, which can adapt itself to stick to human tissue and remain invisible to human immune cells in different parts of the body.
Professor Ana Traven of the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, senior author on both papers, said researchers were looking beyond ways to kill the fungus to explore how the patient's body could be nutritionally manipulated to give the immune system the energy and tools to fight back. Enditem
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