Posted by Sharon on 10/07/10

More | Report Post

Irish Times Sept 30, 2010 Achilles heel probe for deadly
fungus

"...we are interested in Aspergillus to see if we can find
new Achilles heels that maybe we can use to attack the
fungus.”

To find that chink in the armour, they zoned in on
gliotoxin, a molecule the fungus makes and releases to help
it bypass the host’s immune system and establish an
infection.

“What struck us is how could the fungus protect itself
against this molecule, because it’s also a eukaryotic cell
like humans,” says Doyle. “We couldn’t quite understand how
the fungus was able to make it and protect itself.”

Aspergillus also ploughs quite a bit of effort into making
the toxin, he adds. “There are 13 genes involved in making
this small molecule. We thought: why is the fungus
investing so much energy and time in making this molecule?
Was the fungus playing a high-risk game, that it was it
making this molecule to enable the infectious process but
it could be damaged by it too?”

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sciencetoday/2010/0930/1
224279982317.html

Sharon Noonan Kramer

Black Mold Claims Chatboard

LATEST POSTS | BY TOPICS | SUBMIT A POST