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Study To better treat life-threatening fungal infections in the future
Fungal infections are a common complaint, and these can occur in very different forms. Often they show up as infections of the skin, such as the athlete's foot. But a fungal infection can also spread in the body and at worst cause blood poisoning (sepsis). Around 1.5 million people worldwide die each year from fungal sepsis, according to the Medical University of Vienna (MedUni Vienna). Here, the treatment options could be significantly improved in the future by a new discovery and numerous lives are saved, the MedUni Vienna continues.
Scientists of the IMBA (Institute of Molecular Biotechnology) and the Max F. Perutz Laboratories (MFPL) of the MedUni Vienna and the University of Vienna have succeeded in identifying a completely new mechanism that could in the future enable the treatment of life-threatening fungal infections. By a blockade of the enzyme CBL-B, the immune defense against the fungus Candida albicans is significantly increased, the scientists report in the journal "Nature Medicine" from their current study results.
Invasive infections with Candida albicans have often been fatal. With a new treatment method, researchers hope to avoid many of these deaths in the future. (Image: Dr_Kateryna / fotolia.com) Invasive fungal infections often end in death
According to the MedUni Vienna, fungal infections are "among the most common infections worldwide" and every fourth person "suffers from unpleasant skin or mucous membrane infections during their lifetime." However, infestation with the unicellular yeast fungus Candida albicans is usually harmless and easy to treat well. However, these are not the only forms that a fungal infection can take. For if a weakened immune system does not recognize the pathogen in time, the fungus can spread throughout the body and trigger life-threatening blood poisoning and massive organ damage, reports MedUni Vienna. According to the experts, these so-called invasive infections are about 40 percent fatal and lead to around 1.5 million deaths per year.
Lack of antifungal therapy options
According to the MedUni Wien, especially in patients whose immune system has weakened, fungal infections play an increasingly important role in everyday medical practice. "Longer stays in hospitals, but also many new treatments in modern medicine, such as organ transplants or tumor therapies, are often associated with a short to long-term weakening or even damage to the immune system," said the University. In this weakened state, however, infection with the widespread yeast Candida albicans can quickly become life-threatening. Problems not only make the diagnosis of such infections, but also make the treatment in the face of lack of effective antifungal therapies for infections at this advanced stage extremely difficult.
Immune response against Candida albicans decoded
In his current research, the Viennese research team was able to demonstrate not only how the immune system successfully fights against an invasion of Candida albicans. They also developed a protein that can be used against invasive Candida infection. The human immune system has the task of exposing invaders, viruses, bacteria but also fungus pathogens are recognized by a typical signature on the cell outer wall of so-called "immuno-receptors", explain the scientists. These immunoreceptors dock on the outer wall of the pathogen, which alerts and activates the body's defense cells, which then kill the pathogens, the researchers continue.
Enzyme CBL-B is crucial
According to the findings of the research team led by the molecular biologist Gerald Wirnsberger and Florian Zwolanek from the research groups of Josef Penninger (IMBA) and Karl Kuchler (MFPL), the enzyme CBL-B and a signal transmitter called SYK play a special role in the immune response to Candida infections , Here, SYK works with the immune receptor on the cell surface and conducts "the signal for the targeted defense against the fungus, while CBL-B slows down the signal transmission for the immune response and finally switches off completely by destroying SYK," according to the MedUni Vienna , The researchers therefore developed a completely novel protein, a so-called "inhibitor", with which they could specifically block CBL-B in mice. In the subsequent experiments, the protein was successfully used to defeat an invasive Candida infection, while mice in which CBL-B was active succumbed to systemic Candida infection within a short time, the scientists report. This opens a new path to therapy against invasive fungal infections.
Milestone in the treatment of invasive fungal infections
According to Karl Kuchler (MFPL), the research results are "a first milestone for a completely new type of treatment against Candida albicans." For the first time, it was possible to target the immune response that is modulated by CBL-B. "This novel therapy could prove to be clinically very successful, especially in combination with existing therapies that only block the growth of fungi," the expert emphasizes. Similarly optimistic was Josef Penninger, scientific director of the IMBA. "For the medicine of tomorrow, it is becoming increasingly important to decipher the molecular puzzles of the immune system in order to strengthen this body's own protective shield against a specific intruder. We were successful with the often fatal fungus Candida albicans, "said Penninger. (Fp)