Lecture 7 - the immune responses to fungal and parasitic infections Flashcards
Whats Candida albicans?
A commensal fungus that colonises the normal human oral, gastrointestinal and urogenital mucosa.
Disruption of mucosal barriers leads to persistent superficial infection.
What is the name of the infection that candida albicans can commonly lead to in patients with HIV?
Thrush and candida esophagitis
How does candida albicans reproduce?
Asexually by budding
What can cause candida albicans to switch from budding yeast form to filamentous hyphae form?
Microenvironmental signals that accompany tissue invasion e.g. changes in pH, cell density, exposure to serum and iron deprivation
What is innate recognition of fungi mediated by?
Interactions with conserved cell wall constituents e.g. glucans, mannans, galactans
What is dectin-1?
a highly conserved natural killer (NK)-cell-receptor-like C-type lectin.
What does dectin-1’s c type lectin domain recognise?
beta 1,3- and beta 1,6- linked gluons on the surface of intact cells and zymosan
What does engagement of dectin-1 cause?
Phosphorylation of its cytoplasmic immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif (ITAM)
What does activation of Dectin-1 produce?
Induction of the production of inflammatory cytokines and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS)
What comprises the structure of a fungal cell wall?
beta 1,6- glucan Fungal cell wall (chitin) Phospholipid bilayer of fungal cell membrane Ergosterol beta 1,3- gluten synthase mannans galactans
What is the name for the collection of molecules responsible for making distinctions between apoptotic particles generated by normal tissue turnover and particles that are indicative of infection?
Toll like receptors (TLRs)
What does stimulation of immune cells through their TLRs lead to?
Synthesis and secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, thereby initiating the inflammatory response that recruits both soluble immune components and immune cells from the blood
What type of immune response does TLR stimulation of DCs induce, innate or adaptive?
adaptive
What are the _ steps of toll like receptor activation?
- DCs recognise PAMPs such as LPS via their TLRs e.g. TLR4
- LPS is transported by LBP to the cell surface and deposited onto CD4
- Maturation of the DC and migration to the lymph
- Activation of acquired immune response
How do TLRs signal? (Pathway)
- Activation of TLR by fungal cell wall components and CD14
- MyD88 (an adaptor protein) binds TLR
- Signalling cascade initiated that culminates in transcriptional activation of cytokine genes by NK-kB
What occurs in collaborative signalling for cytokine production?
TLR binds to the cells surface along with dectin-1.
TLR and Dectin-1 recruit adaptor proteins MyD88 and phosphorylate Syk respectively.
Both of these promote downstream signalling pathways which enhance cytokine and chemokine production.