Main human inborn errors of immunity leading to fungal infections

Clinical Manifestations of Human Exposure to Fungi

Biological particles, along with inorganic gaseous and particulate pollutants, constitute an ever-present component of the atmosphere and surfaces. Among these particles are fungal species colonizing almost all ecosystems, including the human body. Although inoffensive to most people, fungi can be responsible for several health problems, such as allergic fungal diseases and fungal infections. Worldwide fungal disease incidence is increasing, with new emerging fungal diseases appearing yearly. Reasons for this increase are the expansion of life expectancy, the number of immunocompromised patients (immunosuppressive treatments for transplantation, autoimmune diseases, and immunodeficiency diseases), the number of uncontrolled underlying conditions (e.g., diabetes mellitus), and the misusage of medication (e.g., corticosteroids and broad-spectrum antibiotics). Managing fungal diseases is challenging; only four classes of antifungal drugs are available, resistance to these drugs is increasing, and no vaccines have been approved. The present work reviews the implications of fungal particles in human health from allergic diseases (i.e., allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, severe asthma with fungal sensitization, thunderstorm asthma, allergic fungal rhinosinusitis, and occupational lung diseases) to infections (i.e., superficial, subcutaneous, and systemic infections). Topics such as the etiological agent, risk factors, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and treatment will be revised to improve the knowledge of this growing health concern.

Next-Generation Sequencing Applications for the Study of Fungal Pathogens

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has become a widely used technology in biological research. NGS applications for clinical pathogen detection have become vital technologies. It is increasingly common to perform fast, accurate, and specific detection of clinical specimens using NGS. Pathogenic fungi with high virulence and drug resistance cause life-threatening clinical infections. NGS has had a significant biotechnological impact on detecting bacteria and viruses but is not equally applicable to fungi. There is a particularly urgent clinical need to use NGS to help identify fungi causing infections and prevent negative impacts. This review summarizes current research on NGS applications for fungi and offers a visual method of fungal detection. With the development of NGS and solutions for overcoming sequencing limitations, we suggest clinicians test specimens as soon as possible when encountering infections of unknown cause, suspected infections in vital organs, or rapidly progressive disease.

Antifungal Activity, Structural Stability, and Immunomodulatory Effects on Human Immune Cells of Defensin from the Lentil Lens culinaris

An increase in the frequency of mycoses and spreading of multidrug-resistant fungal pathogens necessitates the search for new antifungal agents. Earlier, we isolated the novel defensin from lentil Lensculinaris seeds, designated as Lc-def, which inhibited the growth of phytopathogenic fungi. Here, we studied an antifungal activity of Lc-def against human pathogenic Candida species, structural stability of the defensin, and its immunomodulatory effects that may help to prevent fungal infection. We showed that Lc-def caused 50% growth inhibition of clinical isolates of Candida albicans, C. krusei, and C. glabrata at concentrations of 25-50 μM, but was not toxic to different human cells. The lentil defensin was resistant to proteolysis by C. albicans and was not cleaved during simulated gastroduodenal digestion. By using the multiplex xMAP assay, we showed for the first time for plant defensins that Lc-def increased the production of such essential for immunity to candidiasis pro-inflammatory cytokines as IL-12 and IL-17 at the concentration of 2 μM. Thus, we hypothesized that the lentil Lc-def and plant defensins in general may be effective in suppressing of mucocutaneous candidiasis due to their antifungal activity, high structural stability, and ability to activate a protective immune response.