Host Immunogenetics and Fungal Virulence Mechanisms in Coccidioidomycosis

有一个广泛的异质性感染后的临床结果与球孢子菌（球菌）， 从无症状感染者到轻度肺部疾病（“山谷热”），再到一种危及生命的侵袭性疾病，称为 播散性球孢子菌病（DCM）。流行地区的每个人都容易受到这种感染，但我们 几乎没有能力预测谁会发展为传播性疾病，也不了解他们为什么会发展为传播性疾病。 帐号吧.仅在加州，每年就有近1万例山谷热和200例扩张型心肌病报告， 每年花费约10亿美元用于球孢子菌病。因此，迫切需要更好地了解DCM， 更好的预防、诊断、诊断和治疗。我们团队的长期目标是研究 恶意利用免疫缺陷的球孢子菌属的毒力程序之间的交叉， 先天性和适应性免疫的遗传和免疫程序失调， 病要抓。 我们的项目将汇集一个由免疫学家、遗传学家、 计算生物学家、真菌微生物学家和临床医生。将深厚的专业知识与协同目标相结合 将带来突破。 我们的联盟包括四个项目和三个支持核心：项目1解决先天免疫 在球菌感染的第一阶段出现错误的球菌感染反应;项目2解决了适应性 对球菌感染的免疫反应在保护宿主免受传播性疾病方面出错;项目3 解决了球菌病的基因组基础，从常见的变异，由于祖先的易感性 到罕见的变种，使宿主防御能力丧失;项目4解决真菌毒力因子的贡献 使生物体能够逃避某些个体的宿主免疫防御。我们的计划包括一个 行政核心（核心A），促进调查人员之间的沟通，组织会议， 财政，并运行发展研究计划。我们还提出了一个统一的临床样本核心 (Core B）包括加州两个最大的球孢子菌病诊所和一个模式生物核心 (Core C）将进行所有需要BSL 3安全措施的实验。这些核心共同赋予 通过提供通用试剂、人体样本、工具和专业知识，为拟议的项目提供支持。 我们提出的调查有可能改变我们对侵袭性真菌感染的理解 并将通过预防、诊断和治疗扩张型心肌病的新方法为患者恢复希望。

There is a broad heterogeneity of clinical outcomes after infection with Coccidioides (Cocci) ranging from asymptomatic infection to mild pulmonary disease (“Valley fever”) to a life-threatening, invasive disease called disseminated coccidioidomycosis (DCM). Everyone in the endemic areas is susceptible to this infection, but we have almost no ability to predict who will develop disseminated disease and lack an understanding of why they do so. With nearly 10K reported cases of Valley fever and 200 cases of DCM yearly in California, our state alone spends ~$1B yearly on coccidioidomycosis. Thus, there is an urgent need to better understand DCM to enable better prevention, diagnostics, prognostics, and treatments. Our team's long-term goal is to study the intersection between the virulence programs of Coccidioides spp that maliciously exploit defective immunity, and the dysregulation of genetic and immunological programs of innate and adaptive immunity that allow for severe disease to take hold. Our program will bring together a cohesive and multi-disciplinary team of immunologists, geneticists, computational biologists, fungal microbiologists, and clinicians. Combining deep expertise with synergistic goals will enable breakthroughs. Our consortium includes four Projects and three supporting Cores: Project 1 addresses the innate immune responses to cocci infection that go awry in the first stages of cocci infection; Project 2 addresses the adaptive immune responses to cocci infection that go awry in protecting the host from disseminated disease; Project 3 addresses the genomic basis of cocci disease, from common variants that underlie susceptibility due to ancestry to rare variants that disable host defenses; and Project 4 addresses the contributions of fungal virulence factors in enabling the organisms to evade host immune defenses in some individuals. Our program includes an Administrative Core (Core A) that facilitates communications between investigators, organizes meetings and finances, and runs the Developmental Research Program. We also propose a unified Clinical Samples Core (Core B) comprising two of the largest coccidioidomycosis clinics in California, and a Model Organisms Core (Core C) that will carry out all experiments requiring BSL3 safety measures. These Cores together empower the proposed projects by providing common reagents, human samples, tools, and expertise. Our proposed investigations have the potential to transform our understanding of invasive fungal infections and will restore hope for patients through new approaches to prevent, diagnose, and treat DCM.