Genes and gene pathways in Candida infection

Abstract

Advances in genetic technology have promoted an explosive increase in our knowledge of genes relevant to Candida infection, and our understanding of their mode of action. Although the major influence on susceptibility to systemic infection is the presence or absence of complement C5, at least two other genes, as yet unidentified, influence the severity of tissue damage. Mice in which specific genes have been deleted (gene-knockout) mice are now readily available, and have been used both in the analysis of receptor interactions with Candida, and to study the role of T cell-derived cytokines in clearance of the infection and the development of host resistance, but results have not always been consistent. Gene profiling studies, in both humans and mice, will no doubt resolve some of the present anomalies