Researchers at KU Leuven have figured out the mechanism behind the deadly hospital fungus Candida auris. This new discovery therefore means that new treatments may soon become available.
We had heard of this particular hospital bug before. Though the hospital fungus Candida auris became a topic of conversation fairly recently, it was actually discovered as long ago as 2009. Normally, healthy people are not greatly affected by it, as they can clear it from their body themselves. Those with impaired immune defences, on the other hand, can contract a serious infection when it enters the bloodstream and can even die from it. What is more, the antifungal drugs to fight the infection are by no means effective in all cases.
Candida auris mainly spreads inside hospitals and nursing homes when people's hands or medical clothing and instruments become contaminated and it is actually able to survive outside the body for a long time. Either the loose fungal cells coalesce and form a clump, leaving the inner cells well protected against environmental factors, or they form a thin biofilm on the skin. That mucus-like substance is even more difficult to combat.
A first step towards an effective treatment is the recent discovery by scientists at KU Leuven of two adhesion proteins that stimulate the formation of fungal clumps and biofilms. If they can break that process, fungal colonies will become more susceptible to antifungal agents and, over time, persistent and life-threatening Candida auris infections in care and healthcare settings should become a thing of the past.
