Recent progress in medical sciences and therapy resulted in an increased number of immunocompromised individuals. Candida albicans is the leading opportunistic fungal pathogen causing infections in humans, ranging from superficial mucosal lesions to disseminated or bloodstream candidiasis. Superficial candidiasis not always presents a risk to the life of the infected host, however it significan...

tunistic fungal disease in humans. In fact, this fungus is also known as the fourth leading cause of nosocomial infections. Over the past few decades, increasing incidence of candidiasis due to this fungus parallels the growing numbers of immmunocompromised people. In immunocompromised people, disseminated candidiasis is sometimes a serious disease which often results in death. In addition to t...

Candida albicans PALS-green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter strains were inoculated into mice in a disseminated candidiasis model, and GFP production was monitored by immunohistochemistry and reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR). GFP production from the ALS1 and ALS3 promoters was detected immunohistochemically. ALS1, ALS2, ALS3, ALS4, and ALS9 transcription was detected by RT-PCR, further ide...

The clinical features of a 7-year-old girl with enamel hypoplasia secondary to autoimmune hypoparathyroidism and chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis are detailed. The combination of features are typical of a rare, probably genetically determined immunodeficiency termed candidiasis endocrinopathy syndrome (CES). Affected individuals have chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis and a spectrum of autoimmu...

Chronic oral candidiasis has been described in association with abnormalities of the endocrine system on many occasions, both in case reports (Sutphin, Albright, and McCune, 1943), and more general reviews (Kunin et al, 1963). Chronic candidiasis has also been recorded in the familial thymic aplasia described by Nezelof (Nezelof et al, 1964), Swiss-type agammaglobulinaemia (Hitzig, 1968) and Di...

Our research on pathogenesis of disseminated candidiasis led to the discovery that antibodies specific for Candida albicans cell surface β-1, 2-mannotriose [β-(Man)(3)] protect mice. A 14 mer peptide Fba, which derived from the N-terminal portion of the C. albicans cytosolic/cell surface protein fructose-bisphosphate aldolase, was used as the glycan carrier and resulted in a novel synthetic gly...

A method is described for the simultaneous quantitation of D-arabinitol and D-mannose in serum by gas-liquid chromatography as an aid for the diagnosis of disseminated candidiasis. Both variables were observed as per-O-acetylated aldononitrile derivatives in each chromatographic run of sera from immunosuppressed rabbits experimentally infected with Candida albicans 3181A.

Disseminated cryptococcosis developed in an HIV antibody positive patient who was taking fluconazole for oral candidiasis. This case highlights the poor response to therapy that may be seen, and the severe pulmonary complications that may ensue. The use of fluconazole prior to the development of cryptococcosis did not confer protection.

We have observed that human neutrophils (polymorphonuclear leukocytes [PMNs]) have an increased growth-inhibitory and killing effect on a strain of Candida albicans with a deletion of CHK1, a gene encoding a putative histidine kinase. The PMN effect was not due to increased phagocytosis of the null strain. This observation may partially explain the reduced virulence in a hematogenously dissemin...