Development of protective inflammation and cell-mediated immunity against Cryptococcus neoformans after exposure to hyphal mutants.

ABSTRACT:

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Morphological switch is tightly coupled with the pathogenesis of many dimorphic fungal pathogens. Cryptococcus neoformans, the major causative agent of cryptococcal meningitis, mostly presents as the yeast form but is capable of switching to the hyphal form. The filamentous form has long been associated with attenuated virulence, yet the underlying mechanism remains elusive. We previously identified the master regulator Znf2 that controls the yeast-to-hypha transition in Cryptococcus. Activation of Znf2 promotes hyphal formation and abolishes fungal virulence in vivo. Here we demonstrated that the cryptococcal strain overexpressing ZNF2 elicited strong and yet temporally confined proinflammatory responses in the early stage of infection. In contrast, exacerbated inflamma

SUBMITTER: Zhai B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4611043 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature