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October 07-08, 2019 | Madrid, Spain
Volume 3
Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious diseases
MICROBIOLOGY AND MICROBIOLOGISTS
MYCOLOGY AND FUNGAL INFECTIONS
2
nd
Annual Congress on
6
th
International Conference on
&
J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis, Volume 3
Microbiology 2019 & Fungal infections 2019
October 07-08, 2019
Beta-lactam antibiotics, the human microbiome and the risk of invasive
Candida
albicans
infection
C
andida albicans
is an opportunistic fungal pathogen in humans.While it normally colonizes the gut and skin as a commensal
yeast in healthy people, it is also a common cause of life-threatening invasive infection in immunocompromised patients,
leading to ~400,000 deaths every year worldwide. What causes
C. albicans
to transform from a harmless resident in our body
to a deadly pathogen? The use of broad-spectrum antibiotics is one of the well-recognized risk factors for invasive
C. albicans
infection, although the underlying mechanism remains unclear. β-lactams, the most commonly used class of broad-spectrum
antibiotics, act by inhibiting peptidoglycan (PGN) polymerization in bacteria, leading to the accumulation and release of PGN
subunits upon bacterial cell lysis. In a previous endeavor to identify the molecules in the human blood that promote
C. albicans
infection, we detected bacterial PGN subunits and demonstrated that some subunits were extremely potent inducers of
C. albicans
hyphal morphogenesis, the invasive form of the fungus. This discovery inspired us to propose and test a potential mechanism by
which β-lactam antibiotics could increase the risk of invasive candidiasis. We hypothesized that β-lactams promote
C. albicans
infection by forcing trillions of bacterial cells in the human microbiota to suddenly release a massive amount of PGN subunits
which in turn drive
C. albicans
to undergo the yeast-to-hyphal transition. We have obtained compelling
in vitro
and
in vivo
evidence that supports our hypothesis, which could lead to new strategies for the prevention and management of invasive
C.
albicans
infection.
Biography
Yue Wang has his expertise in fungal pathogens with a focus on
Candida albicans
. His main interest lies in the identification and characteri-
zation of both host and fungal factors that determine the pathogenicity of
Candida albicans
. His main discoveries include the hypha-specific
gene HGC1 that controls hyphal morphogenesis and a range of Hgc1/Cdc28 substrates that play various roles in polarity control, vesicle
transport and virulence. He also discovered that bacterial peptidoglycan subunits in the blood are potent inducers of
C. albicans
hyphal
growth.
mcbwangy@imcb.a-star.edu.sgYue Wang
Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore