Candida albicans Chitin Increases Arginase-1 Activity in Human Macrophages, with an Impact on Macrophage Antimicrobial Functions

The opportunistic human fungal pathogen Candida albicans can cause a variety of diseases, ranging from superficial mucosal infections to life-threatening systemic infections. Phagocytic cells of the innate immune response, such as neutrophils and macrophages, are important first-line responders to an infection and generate reactive oxygen and nitrogen species as part of their protective antimicrobial response. During an infection, host cells generate nitric oxide through the enzyme inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) to kill the invading pathogen. Inside the phagocyte, iNOS competes with the enzyme arginase-1 for a common substrate, the amino acid l-arginine. Several pathogenic species, including bacteria and parasitic protozoans, actively modulate the production of nitric oxide by inducing their own arginases or the host’s arginase activity to prevent the conversion of l-arginine to nitric oxide. We report here that C. albicans blocks nitric oxide production in human-monocyte-derived macrophages by induction of host arginase activity. We further determined that purified chitin (a fungal cell wall polysaccharide) and increased chitin exposure at the fungal cell wall surface induces this host arginase activity. Blocking the C. albicans-induced arginase activity with the arginase-specific substrate inhibitor Nω-hydroxy-nor-arginine (nor-NOHA) or the chitinase inhibitor bisdionin F restored nitric oxide production and increased the efficiency of fungal killing. Moreover, we determined that C. albicans influences macrophage polarization from a classically activated phenotype toward an alternatively activated phenotype, thereby reducing antimicrobial functions and mediating fungal survival. Therefore, C. albicans modulates l-arginine metabolism in macrophages during an infection, potentiating its own survival.