CANDIDA ALBICANS SURFACE ANTIGENS

念珠菌已成为医院感染的第四大原因 血液感染 血行性 播散性和粘膜皮肤念珠菌病继续上升， 随着免疫功能低下人群的不断增加， 人 几种念珠菌可能是导致 各种形式的念珠菌病，但C. Albicans是迄今为止 普遍的原因。 尽管这个物种的重要性， 关于白色念珠菌与宿主的相互作用还有很多需要了解。 对于许多 多年来，教条已经盛行，特异性抗体不起作用， 对播散性念珠菌病的保护作用，即使 1960年代以来的一些论文已经表明这种教条是错误的。 最近，在研究人员的实验室工作， 其他人则强烈支持， 特异性是保护性的。 至少， 抗体需要仔细重新评估。 研究人员的总体假设是， 正确的特异性有助于保护宿主免受念珠菌感染。 的 研究者已经分离出两种单克隆抗体， C. Albicans酵母细胞。 两种抗体都是 IgM和两种凝集酵母细胞，但一种（MAb B6.1） 保护小鼠免受播散性念珠菌病的侵害，另一种（Mab B6）不。 本申请的主旨是研究 这些抗体特异性的表位， Mab B6.1保护小鼠的机制。 为此中央 研究者将实现以下特定目标。 1. 表征Mab B6.1和Mab B6所针对的表位 特定. 2.研究Mab B6.1 保护，但Mab B6没有。 3.确定是否有抗体 Mab B6.1特异性存在于正常人血清中， 死于传播性疾病的患者，以及 从播散性念珠菌病中恢复。 这些研究将对C.白色寄主 交互. 研究结果可能会应用于预防， 可能是治疗播散性念珠菌病。

Candida has become the fourth leading cause of nosocomial bloodstream infections. The incidence of hematogenous disseminated and mucocutaneous candidiasis continues to rise in parallel with tnhen increasing population of immunocompromised people. Several species of Candida may be responsible for the various forms of candidiasis, but C. Albicans is by far the most prevalent cause. Despite the importance of this species, there is still much to learn about C albicans-host interactions. For many years, the dogma has prevailed that specific antibodies do not play a protective role against disseminated candidiasis, even though some papers since the 1960s have suggested this dogma is wrong. Recently, work in the investigators laboratory and in those of a few others gives strong support that antibodies with the correct specificity are protective. At the very least, the importance of antibodies needs to be carefully re-evaluated. The investigators overall hypothesis is that antibodies with the correct specificity help protect the host against candidiasis. The investigator has isolated two monoclonal antibodies that react with the cell surface of C. Albicans yeast cells. Bothe antibodies are IgMs and both agglutinate yeast cells, but one (MAb B6.1) protects mice against disseminated candidiasis and the other (Mab B6) does not. The thrust of this application is to study the epitopes to which these antibodies are specific and define possible mechanisms by which Mab B6.1 protects mice. To this end, the Investigator will perform the following specific aims. 1. Characterize the epitopes to which Mab B6.1 and Mab B6 are specific. 2. Investigate possible mechanisms by which Mab B6.1 protects, but Mab B6 does not. 3. Determine if antibodies with Mab B6.1 specificity are present in sera of normal people, from patients who died of disseminated disease, and from patients who recovered from disseminated candidiasis. These studies should yield important insights into C. Albicans-host interactions. The results may become applied to prevention and, possibly, therapy of disseminated candidiasis.