This Deadly Fungus Shapeshifts to Get Deep Inside Your Brain Tissue



Scientists have discovered that the deadly fungus Cryptococcus neoformans actually changes in size once it enters a body, boosting its probability of infection. It sounds a little bit like the plot of a horror movie.

The fungus can be discovered in the wild in a range of settings, including rotting wood and bird droppings. Once inhaled, it exhibits the same adaptability inside the body, moving from the lungs through the bloodstream to various organs.

Once established inside the human body, the infection can cause a variety of illnesses, including the uncommon but potentially fatal condition known as fungal meningitis, which causes swelling in the brain.

We may someday be able to treat it more successfully thanks to recent discoveries based on a mouse study.

According to University of Utah pathologist Jessica Brown, "Cryptococcus cells in the lungs are quite diverse with different sizes and distinct looks." I was so startled when my graduate student showed me images of the homogeneity of brain cells.

It was implied that there was a very good reason why only this group of cells was entering the body so far.

The researchers set out to try and understand why cells of a specific size were detected so deeply within host territory, knowing that the fungus might grow up to 10 times its typical size in the lungs.

The scientists found that the tiniest cells of C. neoformans tended to enter the brain when they infected mice with varying sizes of the parasite.

But that wasn't all; the team also discovered modifications to the smaller cells' surfaces and variations in the genes that were active in those fungus. According to the researchers, these "seed cells" aren't just little duplicates of the fungus but rather something entirely distinct.

Based on the researchers' investigations, phosphate is probably what is driving these alterations. Phosphate is abundant in bird droppings in addition to being released from host cells when tissues are harmed during infection. This appears to be the spark for the fungus's development of shape-shifting abilities, which may aid in its ability to infect humans and enter the brain.

We believe that C. neoformans acquired the capacity to infect mammals due to selecting pressures from environmental niches like pigeon guano, says Brown.

These seed cells were able to travel all the way to the brain in the mouse trials in just a few days. The ability of the fungus to adapt to many settings so fast, according to the researchers, is crucial to its ability to successfully propagate throughout the body.

The next step is to confirm that C. neoformans likewise shrinks in humans and to discover medications that can stop this process and stop C. neoformans from harming the body. The scientists speculate that already-approved drugs by the regulatory body would be useful.

We are slowly but surely learning more about the techniques that this lethal fungus employs to propagate its infection, especially in light of current studies into how the fungus penetrates the blood-brain barrier that protects the brain.

We show that the development of a tiny C. neoformans morphotype, also known as'seed' cells because of their propensity to colonize, is essential for extrapulmonary organ entrance.

The study was released in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do You Sleep on Your Back or Side? Here's The Research on 'Optimal' Sleep Positions

Image
William Dement, a renowned sleep researcher at Stanford University, is quoted as saying that after 50 years of study, the only reason he can think of for why we sleep is "because we become sleepy." Sleep certainly matters for our health and wellbeing even though it may be, as one researcher put it, "the sole major habit in quest of a function." Do we, however, have it right? What do studies on sleeping positions say? Is there a proper sleeping position? The majority of people favor sleeping on their side. This is encouraging news because people who sleep on their backs are more likely to have trouble falling asleep or breathing during the night. Most of the time, we have a tendency to shift around quite a bit at night. According to a study involving 664 sleepers, on average, participants slept on their side 54% of the time, their back 37% of the time, and their front 7% of the time. Males are more likely to change positions throughout the night and move their arms, ...
Read more

North America’s Rarest Snake Found Dead

Image
The Tantilla oolitica (rim rock crowned snake), the rarest snake in North America, was recently rediscovered in a Florida Keys park after a four-year hiatus. Even though a snake encounter would normally be cause for celebration among conservationists, it was more of a source of astounding wonder than anything else. The snake was found to be dead, fighting a large centipede that it had partially swallowed in a lifeless battle. Experts haven't previously observed the snake's feeding patterns due to the tragic confrontation. T. oolitica is so uncommon that no one knew what it consumed until now, despite the fact that it is well known that closely related species enjoy centipedes. Researchers from the Florida Museum of Natural History CT scanned the entangled pair and just published their results in the journal Ecology. Coleman Sheehy, co-author and manager of the herpetology collection at the Florida Museum, remarked, "I was surprised when I first viewed the images. "Sam...
Read more

Breakthrough: Physicists Take Particle Self-Assembly to New Level by Mimicking Biology

Image
A group of physicists have developed a brand-new technique for self-assembling particles. This development offers fresh hope for creating intricate and cutting-edge materials at the tiny scale. Self-assembly, which was developed in the early 2000s, provides scientists with a way to "pre-program" particles, enabling the creation of materials without additional human involvement. This is essentially the smallest version of self-assembling Ikea furniture. The discovery, which was published today, September 28, in the journal Nature, focuses on emulsions—oil droplets dissolved in water—and how they might be used to help foldamers self-assemble. The sequence of droplet interactions can possibly be used to anticipate these particular shapes. Through interactions between blue-blue, blue-yellow, and eventually yellow-yellow droplets, which are all mediated by sticky DNA strands, a chain of alternating blue and yellow droplets folds into a crown shape in microscopy images. The image a...
Read more