Candida albicans is a member of the indigenous human flora and is responsible for the largest percentage of oral and esophageal infection of fungal origin in the AIDS patient. While several putative C. albicans virulence factors have been identified that may contribute to oral candidiasis, efforts to detect others suffer from the inherent problem of utilizing cells prepared in a laboratory environment to distinguish gene products which may only be expressed in an infected host. To circumvent this problem, patterns of C. albicans gene expression have been compared and several genes have been identified that are differentially expressed in comparisons of in vivo vs. in vitro growth. During the course of the present investigation, experiments will be performed to: i) determine the importance of the identified genes in promoting survival and infection in an appropriate animal model, and ii) approach the question as to whether genes deemed important in the animal model play a similar role in colonization and infection of humans. It is anticipated that the results will provide insight concerning C. a/b/cans pathogenesis, as well as to identify new potential targets for antifungal drug discovery.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DE013478-02
Application #
6498085
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-AARR-4 (01))
Program Officer
Nokta, Mostafa A
Project Start
2001-02-01
Project End
2005-01-31
Budget Start
2002-02-01
Budget End
2003-01-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2002
Total Cost
$288,672
Indirect Cost
Name
Georgetown University
Department
Microbiology/Immun/Virology
Type
Schools of Dentistry
DUNS #
049515844
City
Washington
State
DC
Country
United States
Zip Code
20057
Kruppa, Michael; Krom, Bastiaan P; Chauhan, Neeraj et al. (2004) The two-component signal transduction protein Chk1p regulates quorum sensing in Candida albicans. Eukaryot Cell 3:1062-5
Krueger, Karl E; Ghosh, Anup K; Krom, Bastiaan P et al. (2004) Deletion of the NOT4 gene impairs hyphal development and pathogenicity in Candida albicans. Microbiology 150:229-40