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Role of CpALS4790 and CpALS0660 in Candida parapsilosis Virulence: Evidence from a Murine Model of Vaginal Candidiasis

Authors :
Marina Zoppo
Fabrizio Fiorentini
Cosmeri Rizzato
Mariagrazia Di Luca
Antonella Lupetti
Daria Bottai
Marisa Colone
Annarita Stringaro
Flavia De Bernardis
Arianna Tavanti
Source :
Journal of Fungi, Vol 6, Iss 2, p 86 (2020)
Publication Year :
2020
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2020.

Abstract

The Candida parapsilosis genome encodes for five agglutinin-like sequence (Als) cell-wall glycoproteins involved in adhesion to biotic and abiotic surfaces. The work presented here is aimed at analyzing the role of the two still uncharacterized ALS genes in C. parapsilosis, CpALS4790 and CpALS0660, by the generation and characterization of CpALS4790 and CpALS066 single mutant strains. Phenotypic characterization showed that both mutant strains behaved as the parental wild type strain regarding growth rate in liquid/solid media supplemented with cell-wall perturbing agents, and in the ability to produce pseudohyphae. Interestingly, the ability of the CpALS0660 null mutant to adhere to human buccal epithelial cells (HBECs) was not altered when compared with the wild-type strain, whereas deletion of CpALS4790 led to a significant loss of the adhesion capability. RT-qPCR analysis performed on the mutant strains in co-incubation with HBECs did not highlight significant changes in the expression levels of others ALS genes. In vivo experiments in a murine model of vaginal candidiasis indicated a significant reduction in CFUs recovered from BALB/C mice infected with each mutant strain in comparison to those infected with the wild type strain, confirming the involvement of CpAls4790 and CpAls5600 proteins in C. parapsilosis vaginal candidiasis in mice.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2309608X
Volume :
6
Issue :
2
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Journal of Fungi
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.263d4572a2ff4e57b8b1bfb9290c18c8
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/jof6020086