IDENTIFICATION OF PATHOGENIC AND CELL DEATH MECHANISMS DURING INFECTION BY P. brasiliensis AND P. lutzii

• Grant number: 15/10390-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: November 01, 2015
• End date: July 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology - Biology and Physiology of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Carlos Pelleschi Taborda
• Grantee: Ana Camila Oliveira Souza
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Paracoccidiodomycosis is an important systemic mycosis in Latin America, caused by the thermo-dimorphic fungi Paracoccidioides brasiliensis and P. lutzii. Immunity cells play an important role in the protection against these pathogens. However, this genus yeasts are able to overcome innate antimicrobial mechanisms and prevail inside of phagocytes, spreading to other tissues and persisting in the host. The sacrifice of infected cells in order to protect remaining cells is a host common mechanism of immunological defense, removing the microbe intracellular niche and exposing it to the extracellular environment. On the other hand, manipulation of cell cycle and death are among the several strategies developed by pathogenic microbes to evade immunological cells activity and persist in the host. Some works demonstrated the induction of cell death by P. brasiliensis in epithelial and peritoneal cells, relating apoptosis to disease resistance. However, there are no reports on the influence of P. lutzii infection on the host cell death and its consequences in disease pathogenesis. In this context, this study has the aim to identify and characterize host cell death occurrence in leucocytes upon infection with P. brasiliensis e P. lutzii, besides identifying the influences of this process in disease pathogenesis.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SOUZA, ANA C. O.; AMARAL, ANDRE C.. Antifungal Therapy for Systemic Mycosis and the Nanobiotechnology Era: Improving Efficacy, Biodistribution and Toxicity. FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY, v. 8, MAR 7 2017. (15/10390-6)