Description:
Every day we inhale hundreds of fungal spores but these in healthy individuals are efficiently eliminated by specialist immune cells called phagocytes which engulf and kill them. However, some human illnesses interfere with this defence mechanism, increasing susceptibility to fungal diseases.
A specialist lung tissue called the epithelium is the first line of contact between the inhaled spores and us, the host. We are working to understand how the lung epithelium interacts with the spores of a common mould called Aspergillus fumigatus.
We have generated fluorescent Aspergillus and combined this with fungal and host specific dyes to directly visulaise this interaction. We have discovered that epithelial cells ingest fungal spores and kill them.
This might provide a critical defence mechanism which is acting while we breathe, and before even phagocytes arrive at the site of the infection.
We are now trying to work out how epithelial cells grab and ingest fungal spores, by using fluorescent fungal mutants and targeted elimination of host proteins.
Once we understand this process in detail we can design new therapies to assist a quicker elimination of the dangerous fungal spores we all inhale on a daily basis.
Dr Margherita Bertuzzi works in Dr Elaine Bignell’s lab at the University of Manchester
Medical and Patient education videos
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Title
Description
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Talk by Gilbert Massard – at the Aspergillosis for Patients meeting in Rome, Feb 3rd 2010
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Talk by David Andes – at the Aspergillosis for Patients meeting in Rome, Feb 3rd 2010.
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Talk by Brahm Segal – at the Aspergillosis for Patients meeting in Rome, Feb 3rd, 2010.
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Talk by David Denning – at the Aspergillosis for Patients meeting in Rome, Feb 3rd, 2010.
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Talk by Russell Lewis – at the Aspergillosis for Patients meeting in Rome, Feb 3rd, 2010.
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An introduction to this meeting by Dr Geoffrey Scott, Consultant Microbiologist.
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Talk by Rick Moss – at the Aspergillosis for Patients meeting in Rome, Feb 3rd, 2010.
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Talk by Malcolm Richardson – at the Aspergillosis for Patients meeting in Rome, Feb 3rd, 2010, with specific references to aspergillus.
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Opening of the UK’s first National Centre for Aspergillosis was marked by a series of short talks from Doctors, Scientists and Patients.
