The global mortality due to cryptococcosis caused by Cryptococcus neoformans or C. gattii is unacceptably high. Currently available therapies are decades old and may be impacted by drug resistance. Therefore, the need for more effective antifungal drugs for cryptococcosis is evident. A number of Cryptococcus virulence factors have been studied in detail, providing crucial information about the ...

The detection of cryptococcal antigen by latex agglutination tests (LATs), enzyme-linked immunoassays (ELISA), or lateral flow assay (LFA) is an important tool for diagnosis of a Cryptococcus infection. Cerebrospinal fluid and/or serum samples of 10 patients with cryptococcosis due to Cryptococcus gattii or a hybrid of Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gattii were examined by three LATs (the IMMY ...

The mortality associated with invasive fungal infections remains high with that involving rare yeast pathogens other than Candida being no exception. This is in part due to the severe underlying conditions typically predisposing patients to these healthcare-related infections (most often severe neutropenia in patients with haematological malignancies), and in part due to the often challenging i...

Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gattii cause meningoencephalitis and are an increasing human health threat. These pathogenic Cryptococcus species are neurotropic and persist in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of the mammalian host during infection. In order to survive in the host, pathogenic fungi must procure nutrients, such as carbon and nitrogen, from the CSF. To enhance our understanding of nu...

Molecular types of the Cryptococcus neoformans/Cryptococcus gattii species complex that infect dogs and cats differ regionally and with host species. Antifungal drug susceptibility can vary with molecular type, but the susceptibility of Cryptococcus isolates from dogs and cats is largely unknown. Cryptococcus isolates from 15 dogs and 27 cats were typed using URA5 restriction fragment length po...

Cryptococcosis is a fungal disease caused by multiple Cryptococcus serotypes; particularly C. neoformans (serotypes A and D) and C. gattii (serotypes B and C). To date, there is no clinically available vaccine to prevent cryptococcosis. Mice given an experimental pulmonary vaccination with a C. neoformans serotype A strain engineered to produce interferon-γ, denoted H99γ, are protected against ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Cryptococcus neoformans infections are becoming increasingly prevalent and remain a life-threatening clinical issue in immune-compromised hosts. The microorganism evades a variety of endogenous anti-fungal mechanims of host immune cells. The signaling pathways in human immune cells that become activated in response to Cryptococcus neoformans infection have yet to be fully charac...

We read with great interest the article entitled “First isolation of Cryptococcus gattii molecular type VGII and Cryptococcus neoformans molecular type VNI from environmental sources in the city of Belém, Pará, Brazil”. The report describes the most recent observation of the presence of Cryptococcus in the normal microbiota of healthy psittacine birds maintained in captivity in Brazil, similarl...