TORONTO, ONScientists at the University of Toronto have found a molecular mechanism that plays a key role in the transition of Candida albicans yeast into disease-causing fungusone of the leading causes of hospital-acquired infection. The finding highlights the importance of heat in fungal growth, and provides a new target for drug therapies to counter Candida albicans infection.
Candida albicans is a normally harmless yeast that is present in all humans. It becomes infectious in various genetic and environmental conditions, with temperature as a key determinant. It can produce infections that are mildpersistent vaginal or gut infections, for exampleor severe, such as systemic, potentially fatal bloodstream infections in patients with AIDS or those who have undergone chemotherapy (or even a simple round of antibiotics).
The molecular workings of Candida albicans were mapped for the first time in 2009 by Professor Leah Cowen of the University of Toronto's Department of Molecular Genetics, whose lab showed that growth of the fungus is tied to the function of a "molecular chaperone" called heat-shock protein 90 (Hsp90). In a study that will appear in the March 20 edition of the journal Current Biology, Prof. Cowen and her colleagues detail a mechanism that controls response to elevated temperature through a protein named Hms1 in conjunction with a cyclin (another type of protein) and its partner protein called a cyclin-dependent kinase.
"This circuitry fundamentally influences how Candida albicans senses temperature, which is crucial for Candida's ability to cause disease," said Prof. Cowen, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Microbial Genomics and Infectious Diseasea prestigious five-year award for which she was renewed this week.
"We were looking for a transcription factor at the end of a pathway we previously showed was key to the change in shape of the fungus that accompanies ele
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| Contact: Jim Oldfield jim.oldfield@utoronto.ca 416-946-8423 University of Toronto Source:Eurekalert |
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