Cryptococcus gattii isolates from the British Columbia cryptococcosis outbreak induce less protective inflammation in a murine model of infection than Cryptococcus neoformans.

ABSTRACT: The fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans causes approximately one million cases of cryptococcosis per year in people with AIDS. In contrast, the related species C. gattii is responsible for a much smaller number of cases, but these often occur in immunocompetent people. In fact, C. gattii has emerged in the last decade as the frequent cause of cryptococcosis in otherwise healthy people in British Columbia. We analyzed the immune responses elicited by three C. gattii strains and one C. neoformans strain in mice as a first step toward understanding why C. gattii is able to cause disease in immunocompetent hosts. The C. gattii strains all induced a less protective inflammatory response in C57BL/6 mice by inhibiting or failing to provoke the migration of neutrophils to sites of infection. T

SUBMITTER: Cheng PY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2747943 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature