Researchers
find out that a fungal pathogen uses an enzyme to hide from the human immune
system.
A particularly
aggressive fungus,
Cryptococcus neoformans, which can easily lead to a fatal infection,
particularly in immunocompromised patients, has four genes that appear to
encode such enzymes. So far, however, it had only been possible to show that
three of them really are chitin deacetylases. The function of the fourth
protein was unknown. Researchers at the University of Münster (Germany) have
now examined this fourth enzyme in detail. They found that this enzyme is a
chitosan deacetylase which has not been described before.
It
appears that chitosan deacetylase is a crucial tool of the fungus to attack its
host under the chitin radar of its immune system. The complete removal of the
acetic acid molecules from the chitin acts like a kind of invisibility cloak,
making the fungus invisible to the immune system.
See:
Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle, Pharmaceutical Microbiology Resources (http://www.pharmamicroresources.com/)
No comments:
Post a comment
Pharmaceutical Microbiology Resources