Catching The Cellular Bus And Vomiting Makes Sense For Fatal Fungus

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Catching The Cellular Bus And Vomiting Makes Sense For Fatal Fungus

Medical News Today - UK

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=64923

A fatal fungus which kills hundreds of thousands of people, as well

as animals, every year may use our defence cells like a bus to

travel round inside us before hopping out at the right stop,

scientists said today (Wednesday 28 March 2007) at the Society for

General Microbiology's 160th Meeting at the University of

Manchester, UK, which will run from 26 29 March 2007.

The extraordinary Cryptococcus fungus, a type of yeast, evades our

defence systems by climbing inside the very cells which should be

killing it, called macrophages, then using them like a bus service

to travel round inside our bodies before jumping out and causing

trouble.

" The fungus has airborne spores which we breathe into our lungs.

Once there they hide from our immune systems by entering and living

in our defence cells called macrophages, which normally surround and

eat dangerous invaders " , says Dr Robin May from the University of

Birmingham, UK. " We have now discovered that they can get themselves

vomited back out from the macrophages without damaging the cell, so

avoiding notice " .

By avoiding an inflammatory response from our defence systems the

yeast is able to move around within our tissues as it likes, without

raising the alarm, or being stopped from using our own cells for

transport.

" We are looking at two main areas: firstly finding out how the

fungus tricks the molecular mechanisms of our body's defences into

allowing the yeast in and out of the macrophage again, " says Dr

May. " Secondly we are exploring whether different strains of

Cryptococcus differ in their ability to exploit human immune cells

in this way, which would help explain unexpected clusters of

cryptococcal disease, such as one in Vancouver a few years ago.

Differences in their escape ability may tell us why some strains of

the fungus are harmless and others are lethal " .

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