Project
Stimulating antifungal innate immunity
Fungal infections remain a leading cause of morbidity and mortality for hospitalized patients, since both accurate clinical diagnosis and subsequent therapy pose challenging problems. The central idea of InnateFun is to decipher mechanisms of innate immune defense, which are suitable for therapeutic interventions to better treat fungal infections. This should facilitate the design of immune-modulatory compounds (IMC) supporting innate immune surveillance to better recognize and clear invasive infections. A major part of invasive fungal infections is caused by Candida spp which are present as normal commensal colonizers on epithelial barriers. Moreover, Candida spp biofilms on indwelling medical devices promote fungal persistence and resistance to antifungal agents. Currently, existing antifungal treatments target growth of fungal pathogens in the host. In contrast, InnateFun aims to modulate innate immune surveillance mechanisms using new IMCs to combat fungal infections. Thereby, we expect to establish a proof-of-principle for a novel type of antifungal drugs, possibly applicable to other microbial infections where activating innate immunity is beneficial.
Fungal infections remain a leading cause of morbidity and mortality for hospitalized patients, since both accurate clinical diagnosis and subsequent therapy pose challenging problems. The central idea of InnateFun is to decipher mechanisms of innate immune defense, which are suitable for therapeutic interventions to better treat fungal infections. This should facilitate the design of immune-modulatory compounds (IMC) supporting innate immune surveillance to better recognize and clear invasive infections. A major part of invasive fungal infections is caused by Candida spp which are present as normal commensal colonizers on epithelial barriers. Moreover, Candida spp biofilms on indwelling medical devices promote fungal persistence and resistance to antifungal agents. Currently, existing antifungal treatments target growth of fungal pathogens in the host. In contrast, InnateFun aims to modulate innate immune surveillance mechanisms using new IMCs to combat fungal infections. Thereby, we expect to establish a proof-of-principle for a novel type of antifungal drugs, possibly applicable to other microbial infections where activating innate immunity is beneficial.