TY - JOUR
T1 - Intracellular parasitism of macrophages by Cryptococcus neoformans
AU - Feldmesser, Marta
AU - Tucker, Stephanie
AU - Casadevall, Arturo
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by NIH grants AI01341 (M.F.), 1T32AI07506 (S.T.), AI33774, AI33142 and HL59842 (A.C.), and a Burroughs Wellcome Developmental Therapeutics Award (A.C.), and their support is gratefully acknowledged.
Copyright:
Copyright 2007 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2001/6/1
Y1 - 2001/6/1
N2 - Cryptococcus neoformans, an encapsulated fungal pathogen, causes meningoencephalitis in immunocompromised patients. Recent in vivo studies have demonstrated that C. neoformans is a facultative intracellular pathogen, as was previously suggested by in vitro studies. For survival in macrophages, C. neoformans utilizes a novel strategy for intracellular parasitism that includes the accumulation of intracellular polysaccharide in cytoplasmic vesicles. Confirmation of the fact that C. neoformans is a facultative intracellular pathogen could provide new insights into several poorly understood areas of cryptococcal pathogenesis, including mechanisms for latency and persistence and the lack of efficacy of humoral immunity. The finding that C. neoformans replicates inside macrophages in vitro in a manner similar to that observed in vivo provides an excellent system to dissect the molecular mechanisms responsible for this unique pathogenic strategy.
AB - Cryptococcus neoformans, an encapsulated fungal pathogen, causes meningoencephalitis in immunocompromised patients. Recent in vivo studies have demonstrated that C. neoformans is a facultative intracellular pathogen, as was previously suggested by in vitro studies. For survival in macrophages, C. neoformans utilizes a novel strategy for intracellular parasitism that includes the accumulation of intracellular polysaccharide in cytoplasmic vesicles. Confirmation of the fact that C. neoformans is a facultative intracellular pathogen could provide new insights into several poorly understood areas of cryptococcal pathogenesis, including mechanisms for latency and persistence and the lack of efficacy of humoral immunity. The finding that C. neoformans replicates inside macrophages in vitro in a manner similar to that observed in vivo provides an excellent system to dissect the molecular mechanisms responsible for this unique pathogenic strategy.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0966-842X(01)02035-2
DO - 10.1016/S0966-842X(01)02035-2
M3 - Review article
C2 - 11390242
AN - SCOPUS:0035370561
SN - 0966-842X
VL - 9
SP - 273
EP - 278
JO - Trends in Microbiology
JF - Trends in Microbiology
IS - 6
ER -