Fungal Infection Host Protein Found

South African and Japanese scientists have, independently, demonstrated the importance of a host protein in recognizing the presence of fungal infections.

Pathogenic fungi can cause life-threatening infections in individuals with immunodeficiencies, such as those with advanced HIV disease.

The two independent groups led by Gordon Brown of the University of Cape Town in South Africa and Yoichiro Iwakura at the University of Tokyo produced mice lacking the protein Dectin-1 — a cell-surface protein implicated in immune responses to fungal infections.

Both studies show mice lacking Dectin-1 are relatively normal except when infected with fungi, which causes more lethality in the mutant mice. The authors also evaluated the types of blunted immune responses that occur in the mutant mice and show only specific immune functions are defective.

Both studies are presented in the January issue of the journal Nature Immunology.