“Cryptococcus cell surface modifications during antifungal drug treatment”

Venue: Small Lecture Theatre, MSI

Host: Manu De Rycker

Abstract

Meningitis caused by the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans affects half a million people and kills over 181,000 annually, mostly people with weakened immunity, such as those with cancer, organ transplant recipients and HIV/AIDS patients. We need to understand the strategies used by this fungus to cause disease and use this information to develop new antifungal drugs against Cryptococcus neoformans. Cryptococcus is unique among serious fungal pathogens of humans by the fact that it is enveloped by two sugar coats: the capsule and the cell wall. Both the capsule and the cell wall contribute to Cryptococcus virulence. I am interested in the cell wall because it is absent in mammals and could be a great target for new antifungal drugs.

Fungi such Candida and Aspergillus spp. respond to Echinocandins and Fluconazole by altering their cell wall composition. It is not known whether Cryptococcus modifies it cell wall in response to antifungal drugs treatment and whether these modifications contribute to antifungal drug resistance. In this presentation, I will first discuss why it is important to study Cryptococcus and then present our work on how Cryptococcus neoformans alters it cell wall composition when exposed to antifungal drugs currently used to treat Cryptococcus infection.