TY - JOUR
T1 - Analysis of multiple components involved in the interaction between Cryptococcus neoformans and Acanthamoeba castellanii
AU - Rizzo, Juliana
AU - Albuquerque, Priscila C.
AU - Wolf, Julie M.
AU - Nascimento, Renata
AU - Pereira, Marcos D.
AU - Nosanchuk, Joshua D.
AU - Rodrigues, Marcio L.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by grants from Brazilian agencies Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico (CNPq) and Funda??o de Amparo ? Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ). The authors also acknowledge support from the Instituto Nacional de Ci?ncia e Tecnologia de Inova??o em Doen?as de Popula??es Negligenciadas (INCT-IDPN). J.R. is a Ph.D. student affiliated to Programa de P?s-Gradua??o em Qu?mica Biol?gica, IBqM/UFRJ, Brazil, and was partially supported by an Interhemispheric Research Training Grant in Infectious Diseases, Fogarty International Center D43TW007129 at the Nosanchuk Laboratory (Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY). JDN is supported in part through NIH AI52733 and AI124797-01 as well as the US-Brasil NIH supplement R37 AI033142-23. We are grateful to Luna Sobrino Joffe and Ana Caroline Colombo for valuable suggestions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 British Mycological Society
PY - 2017/6
Y1 - 2017/6
N2 - Cryptococcus neoformans is an environmental fungus that can cause lethal meningoencephalitis in immunocompromised individuals. The mechanisms by which environmental microbes become pathogenic to mammals are still obscure, but different studies suggest that fungal virulence evolved from selection imposed by environmental predators. The soil-living Acanthamoeba castellanii is a well-known predator of C. neoformans. In this work, we evaluated the participation of C. neoformans virulence-associated structures in the interaction of fungal cells with A. castellanii. Fungal extracellular vesicles (EVs) and the polysaccharide glucuronoxylomannan (GXM) were internalized by A. castellanii with no impact on the viability of amoebal cells. EVs, but not free GXM, modulated antifungal properties of A. castellanii by inducing enhanced yeast survival. Phagocytosis of C. neoformans by amoebal cells and the pathogenic potential in a Galleria mellonella model were not affected by EVs, but previous interactions with A. castellanii rendered fungal cells more efficient in killing this invertebrate host. This observation was apparently associated with marked amoeba-induced changes in surface architecture and increased resistance to both oxygen- and nitrogen-derived molecular species. Our results indicate that multiple components with the potential to impact pathogenesis are involved in C. neoformans environmental interactions.
AB - Cryptococcus neoformans is an environmental fungus that can cause lethal meningoencephalitis in immunocompromised individuals. The mechanisms by which environmental microbes become pathogenic to mammals are still obscure, but different studies suggest that fungal virulence evolved from selection imposed by environmental predators. The soil-living Acanthamoeba castellanii is a well-known predator of C. neoformans. In this work, we evaluated the participation of C. neoformans virulence-associated structures in the interaction of fungal cells with A. castellanii. Fungal extracellular vesicles (EVs) and the polysaccharide glucuronoxylomannan (GXM) were internalized by A. castellanii with no impact on the viability of amoebal cells. EVs, but not free GXM, modulated antifungal properties of A. castellanii by inducing enhanced yeast survival. Phagocytosis of C. neoformans by amoebal cells and the pathogenic potential in a Galleria mellonella model were not affected by EVs, but previous interactions with A. castellanii rendered fungal cells more efficient in killing this invertebrate host. This observation was apparently associated with marked amoeba-induced changes in surface architecture and increased resistance to both oxygen- and nitrogen-derived molecular species. Our results indicate that multiple components with the potential to impact pathogenesis are involved in C. neoformans environmental interactions.
KW - Amoebal predators
KW - Cell surface
KW - Fungal virulence
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U2 - 10.1016/j.funbio.2017.04.002
DO - 10.1016/j.funbio.2017.04.002
M3 - Article
C2 - 28606355
AN - SCOPUS:85019059135
VL - 121
SP - 602
EP - 614
JO - Mycological Research
JF - Mycological Research
SN - 1878-6146
IS - 6-7
ER -