Life and death of Cryptococcus neoformans when taken up by murine macrophages
Cryptococcus neoformans, Virulence, Trojan Horse, Immune Response.
The infection caused by Cryptococcus neoformans has a global
relevance, being set as the main cause of fungal meningitis around the world.
The cryptococcosis mainly affects immunocompromised individuals, such as
people with AIDS, but can also grieve healthy people, even in a rare rate.
The evasion and virulence mechanisms of the fungus makes it possible to
trespass the blood-brain barrier and cause inflammation of the cerebral
meninges. One of these mechanisms is called Trojan Horse, this mechanism
allows the fungus to infect and survive inside host immune cells, migrating to
the brain inside those cells while it’s protected against the immune response
of the host. To better understand how C. neoformans dies and survive when it
is phagocytosed by macrophages, we designed an innovative assay which
aims to document, through fluorescence markers, the death and survival of
the fungus when interacting with J774 macrophages.