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Comment
. 2019 Jun;40(6):469-471.
doi: 10.1016/j.it.2019.04.007. Epub 2019 Apr 30.

Fungus Among Us: The Frenemies Within

Felix E Y Aggor  1 , Sing Sing Way  2 , Sarah L Gaffen  3
Affiliations
Comment

Fungus Among Us: The Frenemies Within

Felix E Y Aggor et al. Trends Immunol. 2019 Jun.

Abstract

A recent study shows that the commensal fungus Candida albicans is an inducer of differentiation of human CD4+ Th17 cells that harbor heterologous specificity for other fungi, which may explain evolutionary benefits of C. albicans as a commensal microbe (Bacher et al. Cell 2019;176;1340-1355). However, Th17 cells that are crossreactive to Aspergillus fumigatus antigens can also drive exaggerated airway inflammation in humans.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Gut Candida albicans Can Drive Heterologous Expansion of Cross-Reactive Th17 Cells During Acute Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis.
C. albicans exists as a commensal in the healthy human gut and its continuous presence maintains homeostatic Candida-specific Th17 cells. Dysbiosis during inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease can promote expansion of C. albicans specific “memory Th17 cells”. Many of these cells cross-react with A. fumigatus antigens, promoting exaggerated effector Th17 responses during airway inflammatory diseases, thus causing increased pathology.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

  • Human Anti-fungal Th17 Immunity and Pathology Rely on Cross-Reactivity against Candida albicans.
    Bacher P, Hohnstein T, Beerbaum E, Röcker M, Blango MG, Kaufmann S, Röhmel J, Eschenhagen P, Grehn C, Seidel K, Rickerts V, Lozza L, Stervbo U, Nienen M, Babel N, Milleck J, Assenmacher M, Cornely OA, Ziegler M, Wisplinghoff H, Heine G, Worm M, Siegmund B, Maul J, Creutz P, Tabeling C, Ruwwe-Glösenkamp C, Sander LE, Knosalla C, Brunke S, Hube B, Kniemeyer O, Brakhage AA, Schwarz C, Scheffold A. Bacher P, et al. Cell. 2019 Mar 7;176(6):1340-1355.e15. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.01.041. Epub 2019 Feb 21. Cell. 2019. PMID: 30799037

References

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