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Exploring Virulence Determinants of Filamentous Fungal Pathogens through Interactions with Soil Amoebae
Infections with filamentous fungi are common to all animals, but attention is rising especially due to the increasing incidence and high mortality rates observed in immunocompromised human individuals. Here, Aspergillus fumigatus and other members of its genus are the leading causative agents. Attri...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2017
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5723301/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29259922 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2017.00497 |
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author | Novohradská, Silvia Ferling, Iuliia Hillmann, Falk |
author_facet | Novohradská, Silvia Ferling, Iuliia Hillmann, Falk |
author_sort | Novohradská, Silvia |
collection | PubMed |
description | Infections with filamentous fungi are common to all animals, but attention is rising especially due to the increasing incidence and high mortality rates observed in immunocompromised human individuals. Here, Aspergillus fumigatus and other members of its genus are the leading causative agents. Attributes like their saprophytic life-style in various ecological niches coupled with nutritional flexibility and a broad host range have fostered the hypothesis that environmental predators could have been the actual target for some of their virulence determinants. In this mini review, we have merged the recent findings focused on the potential dual-use of fungal defense strategies against innate immune cells and soil amoebae as natural phagocytes. Well-established virulence attributes like the melanized surface of fungal conidia or their capacity to produce toxic secondary metabolites have also been found to be protective against the model amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. Some of the recent advances during interaction studies with human cells have further promoted the adaptation of other amoeba infection models, including the wide-spread generalist Acanthamoeba castellanii, or less prominent representatives like Vermamoeba vermiformis. We further highlight prospects and limits of these natural phagocyte models with regard to the infection biology of filamentous fungi and in comparison to the phagocytes of the innate immune system. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5723301 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-57233012017-12-19 Exploring Virulence Determinants of Filamentous Fungal Pathogens through Interactions with Soil Amoebae Novohradská, Silvia Ferling, Iuliia Hillmann, Falk Front Cell Infect Microbiol Microbiology Infections with filamentous fungi are common to all animals, but attention is rising especially due to the increasing incidence and high mortality rates observed in immunocompromised human individuals. Here, Aspergillus fumigatus and other members of its genus are the leading causative agents. Attributes like their saprophytic life-style in various ecological niches coupled with nutritional flexibility and a broad host range have fostered the hypothesis that environmental predators could have been the actual target for some of their virulence determinants. In this mini review, we have merged the recent findings focused on the potential dual-use of fungal defense strategies against innate immune cells and soil amoebae as natural phagocytes. Well-established virulence attributes like the melanized surface of fungal conidia or their capacity to produce toxic secondary metabolites have also been found to be protective against the model amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. Some of the recent advances during interaction studies with human cells have further promoted the adaptation of other amoeba infection models, including the wide-spread generalist Acanthamoeba castellanii, or less prominent representatives like Vermamoeba vermiformis. We further highlight prospects and limits of these natural phagocyte models with regard to the infection biology of filamentous fungi and in comparison to the phagocytes of the innate immune system. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-12-05 /pmc/articles/PMC5723301/ /pubmed/29259922 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2017.00497 Text en Copyright © 2017 Novohradská, Ferling and Hillmann. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Microbiology Novohradská, Silvia Ferling, Iuliia Hillmann, Falk Exploring Virulence Determinants of Filamentous Fungal Pathogens through Interactions with Soil Amoebae |
title | Exploring Virulence Determinants of Filamentous Fungal Pathogens through Interactions with Soil Amoebae |
title_full | Exploring Virulence Determinants of Filamentous Fungal Pathogens through Interactions with Soil Amoebae |
title_fullStr | Exploring Virulence Determinants of Filamentous Fungal Pathogens through Interactions with Soil Amoebae |
title_full_unstemmed | Exploring Virulence Determinants of Filamentous Fungal Pathogens through Interactions with Soil Amoebae |
title_short | Exploring Virulence Determinants of Filamentous Fungal Pathogens through Interactions with Soil Amoebae |
title_sort | exploring virulence determinants of filamentous fungal pathogens through interactions with soil amoebae |
topic | Microbiology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5723301/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29259922 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2017.00497 |
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