Ultimately, the goal is to seek out ways to forestall fatal disease attributable to Cryptococcus neoformans from occurring in humans and animals. But until then, finding latest and higher ways to treat existing disease and its symptoms stays a high priority.
Kristen Nelson's lab on the Center for One Health Research has taken a step toward a greater treatment for Cryptococcus, completing a six-year study. have evaluated the virulence of 38 clinical isolates from different Cryptococcus species. The results are published in
“The question we're addressing is: Can we predict serious disease outcomes in patients?” said Nelson, a professor of microbiology and immunology on the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. “If we can predict disease outcomes, we can better treat patients. In these studies, we identified not only the genes that allow Cryptococcus to cause disease, but also those gene alleles.” It also identifies aspects that make it more diseased or less diseased.”
Cryptococcus neoformans is a style of fungus that may cause serious infections in humans and plenty of species of animals. It is usually present in the environment, especially in soil contaminated by bird droppings. When an individual inhales microscopic spores of Cryptococcus, it might probably result in an infection called Cryptococcus. This infection often affects the lungs and may spread to the brain. People with compromised immune systems, akin to those with HIV/AIDS or organ transplant recipients, are at greater risk.
“We're laying the foundation for future treatments,” Nelson said. “Once we understand the biology of infection, and how it is affected by different Cryptococcus gene alleles, we can develop new treatments targeting these genes.”
Nelson got here to Virginia Tech this fall after 17 years on the University of Minnesota. She brought home $8 million price of NIH grants for her latest lab at COHR. One of those grants supported this latest research findings.
COHR is a collaboration between the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, founded on the principles of One Health, the philosophy that human, animal and environmental health are interconnected.
The entire genome of every strain was sequenced to find out which genes were related to different disease severities in a mouse model that mimics the human disease, Nelson said. Further identification of disease effects and their genetic causes, and possibly higher disease treatments, will advance from this study.
“Some of our African colleagues are going to develop diagnostic tests that will identify allelic differences in the genes we have identified. The hope is that these diagnostic tests can be used in the clinic to predict disease severity. can be done and how that will affect the treatment strategy,” Nelson said. “My group can also be looking closely on the function of the genes we identified and the way they're affecting disease.”