Biofilm development on 3D skin infected by Trichophyton rubrum and analysis of gene expression by real-time PCR

• Grant number: 22/15456-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2023
• End date: January 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology - Biology and Physiology of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Maria José Soares Mendes Giannini
• Grantee: Matheus Bordoy Mendonça
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas (FCFAR). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Dermatophytes are filamentous keratinophilic fungi, agents of dermatophytosis, also more commonly known as "tinha" or "tinea," mycoses with a high global incidence capable of developing exclusively on tissues with keratin, such as nails, hair, and skin. The main agents can be anthropophilic and zoophilic. Several virulence factors are involved in the pathogenicity of dermatophytosis. The formation of fungal biofilm may be related to the difficulty of treatment and chronicity because they are communities resistant to antimicrobials, immune responses, and adverse environmental conditions. Some species of dermatophytes still require exclusive niches in the human host to analyze their pathogenicity, which makes results obtained through animal models unreliable. For the study of dermatophytes, using ex vivo three-dimensional (3D) skin models has been gaining emphasis since it can emulate the conditions for the fungus-host interactions in a closer to reality. However, there is no further study of biofilms using these models in the literature. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to analyze the molecular mechanisms involved in biofilm formation in reconstituted human epidermis models. The expression of genes correlated to pathogenesis will be verified using real-time PCR techniques after T. rubrum infection in a 3D skin model.