Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
C
HAPTER
4
Involvement of
ADH
1,
IPT
1 and
PMT
Genes in
Candida albicans
Pathogenesis
Mahmoud Rouabhia*
and Mahmoud Ghannoum
Abstract
Candida albicans
is the most common opportunistic fungal pathogen of humans,
causing multiple infections in different locations within the body, including the
oral cavity. Oral candidiasis is a collective name for a group of disorders caused
by the dimorphic fungus
Candida albicans
(
C. albicans
). Thrush and denture stoma-
titis are the most commonly encountered disorders.
C. albicans
infection includes
adhesion, morphological and phenotypic changing, biofi lm formation and the
production of secreted hydrolytic enzymes. These attributes thus contribute to
host tissue recognition, tissue invasion and colonization, as well as evasion of the
host's immune response. This refl ects the remarkable potential of
C. albicans
to
adapt to various micro-niches within the host. The high adaptability of
C. albicans
is controlled by multiple genes with differential activation in response to various
environmental stimuli. Selective identifi cation of these preferentially expressed
genes within infected hosts may be a valuable strategy to determine virulence
factors and defi ne global expression patterns relevant to
Candida
pathogenesis.
This review discusses recent advances related to
C. albicans
genes
IPT
1,
ADH
1
and
PMT
and examines the role of each gene in
C. albicans
adhesion, growth,
morphological change, biofi lm formation and interaction with the host tissue in
an engineered human oral mucosa model.
INTRODUCTION
In close to 300000 identifi ed species of fungi, fortunately only a limited
number (150-200 species) are capable of causing infections in humans
