Intestinal Candida parapsilosis isolates from Rett syndrome subjects bear potential virulent traits and capacity to persist within the host.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Rett syndrome (RTT) is a neurological disorder mainly caused by mutations in MeCP2 gene. It has been shown that MeCP2 impairments can lead to cytokine dysregulation due to MeCP2 regulatory role in T-helper and T-reg mediated responses, thus contributing to the pro-inflammatory status associated with RTT. Furthermore, RTT subjects suffer from an intestinal dysbiosis characterized by an abnormal expansion of the Candida population, a known factor responsible for the hyper-activation of pro-inflammatory immune responses. Therefore, we asked whether the intestinal fungal population of RTT subjects might contribute the sub-inflammatory status triggered by MeCP2 deficiency.

Methods

We evaluated the cultivable gut mycobiota from a cohort of 50 RTT patients and 29 healthy

SUBMITTER: Strati F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5930502 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature