ABSTRACTS – ORAL PRESENTATIONS - AMCA, spol. s r.o.

epithelial barrier functions in immunocompetent individuals up to inflammatory diseases
and severe life-threatening infections in immunocompromised patients. C. glabrata is of
special importance because of a recent increase in its frequency and its innately reduced
susceptibility to antifungal agents, specifically to azoles. The immunomodulation of
fungal infections depends on the specific recognition of cell-wall antigens, representing
the pathogen associated molecular patterns by immunocompetent cells. These antigens
could be able to induce proliferation and activation of immune cells. The outermost layer
of the cell wall of Candida species consists of mannoproteins containing O-glycosylated
oligosaccharide and N-glycosylated polysaccharide moieties. Both carbohydrate
moieties have been shown to play an essential role in host-fungal interactions, including
the triggering and modulation of the anti-Candida host immune responses, which
appear to rely on the interplay between the innate and adaptive immunities. Until
yet, the role of mannan on immune system modulation is not sufficiently described.
The dendritic cells (DCs) model represents a promising target for immunotherapy
interventions and vaccine development. DCs increase an innate or specific response to
fungi by producing inflammatory mediators, they are uniquely appropriate for decoding
the fungus-associated information and next translation into a qualitatively different T
helper responses. We observed, that C. glabrata mannan is able to induce activation
of DCs and to increase the expression of co-stimulatory molecules CD80 and CD86. C.
glabrata mannan was also able to stimulate proliferation of mouse splenocytes and
increase production of TNF-α and IL-4 in concentration dependent manner.
Acknowledgements
This contribution is the result of project implementation: Centre of Excellence for
Glycomics, ITMS 26240120031, supported by the Research & Development Operational
Programme funded by ERDF.
This work was supported by the Grant Agency of Slovak Academy of Sciences VEGA
2/0026/13 and by FEMS Research Fellowship FRF 2010-2.
Legend to figure
Fig.1: Expression of CD80 and CD86
DCs stimulated for 24 h with 10 μg/ml E. coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS10), 100μg/ml
mannan C. glabrata (M100), 300μg/ml mannan C. glabrata (M300) and 600μg/ml
mannan C. glabrata (M600).
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