Study Reveals Mysterious Mechanism of a Drug-Resistant Fungus

Fungi can be very complex multicellular organisms or single-celled organisms. They can be found in almost any habitat, but the majority of them prefer to live on land, primarily in soil or even on plant matter, as opposed to the sea or fresh water.

The mechanism by which the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans is resilient to fungus-specific medications has been uncovered by an international research team.

 It is a fungus that resembles yeast and can infect people. Antifungals, a class of specific medications, are available as treatment, but those who don't always work, a problem akin to antibiotic resistance.

Fungi

(Photo : Jesse Bauer/Unsplash)

The decomposers are a group that thrives in the soil or on dead plant matter and is crucial to the cycling of carbon and other elements. A few are parasites of plants that spread diseases like canker, rust, scabs, and mildew, as per Microbiology Society.

Fungal diseases in crops can cause the farmer to lose a significant amount of money. A very small percentage of fungi can make animals sick. This included skin conditions that affect humans like athletes foot, ringworm, and thrush.

Fungi are classified according to their life cycles, whether or not they have a fruiting body, how those bodies are arranged, and the kind of spores they start producing.

There are three main categories of fungi: Molds with many cells that form filaments, Macroscopic filamentous fungi, and large fruiting bodies.

Although the group is occasionally referred to as "mushrooms," the term refers only to the portion of the fungus that grows above ground and is also recognized as the fruiting body, and lastly, the single-celled microscopic yeasts.

Read More: The Potential of Mycology or Fungi Megascience in Advancing Our Knowledge and Technology

Resistance of emerging fungi

According to Professor Ulrich Kück, Senior Professor in General and Molecular Botany at RUB, the findings have significant implications for treating fungal infections in clinical practice, veterinary medicine, and agriculture, as per ScienceDaily.

 He collaborated on the project with the team led by Professor Dr. Joe Heitman, a visiting professor at RUB on numerous occasions and currently located at Duke University in North Carolina, as well as the researcher Dr. Tim Dahlmann from Bochum.

According to Ulrich Kück, as a result of longer life expectancies and an increase in the use of immunosuppressants as treatment after organ transplants, there are more people in the western hemisphere with lowered immune defenses.

Fungal infections are on the rise as a result of this. One of the important human pathogenic fungi, Cryptococcus neoformans, is the cause of the condition known as cryptococcosis.

 In immunocompromised patients, it causes acute infections, and the fatality rate can reach 70%. This is because drug-resistant fungal strains frequently develop in hospitals, making treatment more challenging. In what cellular and genetic mechanisms cause this resistance is as of yet unknown.

However, it was already known that so-called transposons contributed to the resistances. Jumping genes are transposons, DNA fragments with the ability to move around the genome and alter how genes function.

 It is probable for resistance to develop if a transposon inserts itself into a gene that is essential for drug receptivity. Regulation RNAs, also known as siRNAs or small interfering RNAs, regulate the movement of transposons.

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