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Cryptococcus Infections and Pathogenesis
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Cryptococcus Infections and Pathogenesis

A special issue of Journal of Fungi (ISSN 2309-608X). This special issue belongs to the section "Fungal Pathogenesis and Disease Control".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2024 | Viewed by 1469

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Erin McClelland

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Osteopathic Medicine, Marian University, Indianapolis, IN 46222, USA
Interests: cryptococcus neoformans; medical mycology; host-pathogen interactions; gender-specific differences to infection
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Cryptococcus species cause infections in a variety of hosts and while many discoveries shed light on how infection and disease occur, more remains to be discovered. For this Special Issue, we invite original research articles or review papers on all aspects of Cryptococcus infections and pathogenesis. Potential topics include but are not limited to: microbial virulence factors involved in infection/pathogenesis, host responses that affect infection/pathogenesis, host‒pathogen interactions, Cryptococcus transmission, antifungal therapies, and alternative disease models. We look forward to reading your contributions.

Dr. Erin McClelland
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Fungi is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • cryptococcus
  • cryptococcosis
  • infection
  • host immune responses
  • virulence
  • pathogenesis
  • host-pathogen interactions
  • antifungal therapy

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 3779 KiB  
Article
The CARD9 Gene in Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus): Does It Play a Role in the Cryptococcus–Koala Interaction?
by Hannah P. Newton, Damien P. Higgins, Andrea Casteriano, Belinda R. Wright, Mark B. Krockenberger and Luisa H. M. Miranda
J. Fungi 2024, 10(6), 409; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof10060409 - 6 Jun 2024
Viewed by 272
Abstract
Cryptococcus is a genus of fungal pathogens that can infect and cause disease in a range of host species and is particularly prominent in koalas (Phascolarctos cinerus). Like other host species, koalas display a range of outcomes upon exposure to environmental [...] Read more.
Cryptococcus is a genus of fungal pathogens that can infect and cause disease in a range of host species and is particularly prominent in koalas (Phascolarctos cinerus). Like other host species, koalas display a range of outcomes upon exposure to environmental Cryptococcus, from external nasal colonization to asymptomatic invasive infection and, in rare cases, severe clinical disease resulting in death. Host factors contributing to these varied outcomes are poorly understood. Due to their close relationship with eucalypt trees (a key environmental niche for Cryptococcus gattii) and suspected continual exposure to the pathogen, koalas provide a unique opportunity to examine host susceptibility in natural infections. Caspase recruitment domain-containing protein 9 (CARD9) is a key intracellular signaling protein in the fungal innate immune response. Humans with mutations in CARD9 succumb to several different severe and chronic fungal infections. This study is the first to sequence and explore CARD9 variation in multiple koalas using Sanger sequencing. Four CARD9 exons were successfully sequenced in 22 koalas from a New South Wales, Australia population. We found minimal variation between koalas across all four exons, an observation that was also made when CARD9 sequences were compared between koalas and six other species, including humans and mice. Ten single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) were identified in this study and explored in the context of cryptococcal exposure outcomes. While we did not find any significant association with variation in cryptococcal outcomes, we found a high degree of conservation between species at several SNP loci that requires further investigation. The findings from this study lay the groundwork for further investigations of CARD9 and Cryptococcus both in koalas and other species, and highlight several considerations for future studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cryptococcus Infections and Pathogenesis)
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20 pages, 6852 KiB  
Article
Inhibition of Microbicidal Activity of Canine Macrophages DH82 Cell Line by Capsular Polysaccharides from Cryptococcus neoformans
by Isabel F. LaRocque-de-Freitas, Elias Barbosa da Silva-Junior, Leticia Paixão Gemieski, Beatriz da Silva Dias Lima, Israel Diniz-Lima, Aislan de Carvalho Vivarini, Ulisses G. Lopes, Leonardo Freire-de-Lima, Alexandre Morrot, José Osvaldo Previato, Lucia Mendonça-Previato, Lucia Helena Pinto-da-Silva, Celio G. Freire-de-Lima and Debora Decote-Ricardo
J. Fungi 2024, 10(5), 339; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof10050339 - 8 May 2024
Viewed by 653
Abstract
Cryptococcus neoformans is a lethal fungus that primarily affects the respiratory system and the central nervous system. One of the main virulence factors is the capsule, constituted by the polysaccharides glucuronoxylomannan (GXM) and glucuronoxylomanogalactan (GXMGal). Polysaccharides are immunomodulators. One of the target cell [...] Read more.
Cryptococcus neoformans is a lethal fungus that primarily affects the respiratory system and the central nervous system. One of the main virulence factors is the capsule, constituted by the polysaccharides glucuronoxylomannan (GXM) and glucuronoxylomanogalactan (GXMGal). Polysaccharides are immunomodulators. One of the target cell populations for modulation are macrophages, which are part of the first line of defense and important for innate and adaptive immunity. It has been reported that macrophages can be modulated to act as a “Trojan horse,” taking phagocytosed yeasts to strategic sites or having their machinery activation compromised. The scarcity of information on canine cryptococcosis led us to assess whether the purified capsular polysaccharides from C. neoformans would be able to modulate the microbicidal action of macrophages. In the present study, we observed that the capsular polysaccharides, GXM, GXMGal, or capsule total did not induce apoptosis in the DH82 macrophage cell line. However, it was possible to demonstrate that the phagocytic activity was decreased after treatment with polysaccharides. In addition, recovered yeasts from macrophages treated with polysaccharides after phagocytosis could be cultured, showing that their viability was not altered. The polysaccharides led to a reduction in ROS production and the mRNA expression of IL-12 and IL-6. We observed that GXMGal inhibits MHC class II expression and GXM reduces ERK phosphorylation. In contrast, GXMGal and GXM were able to increase the PPAR-γ expression. Furthermore, our data suggest that capsular polysaccharides can reduce the microbicidal activity of canine macrophages DH82. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cryptococcus Infections and Pathogenesis)
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