Caught red feathered: infection from cockatoo to human and mice reveals genetic plasticity of Cryptococcus neoformans during mammalian passage
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The fungus Cryptococcus neoformans is pervasive in our environment and causes the infectious disease cryptococcosis in humans, most commonly in immunocompromised patients. In addition to corroborating the avian origins of a case of cryptococcosis in an immunocompromised patient in 2000, a fascinating recent report has now characterized the genetic and phenotypic changes that occur in this C. neoformans during passage in mammalian hosts. Interestingly, mouse-passaged isolates showed differences in virulence factors ranging from capsule size, melanization, nonlytic macrophage exocytosis, and amoeba predation resistance as compared to the patient strain. Taken together, these results provide new insights about the relationship between mutations acquired during an infection and changes in virulence.
Source: Tissue Barriers
Authors: Dorrian G. Cohen, Rebecca A. Wingert
Institution: University of Notre Dame
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funder: University of Notre Dame
OpenAlex ID: W4391320250