Immune Responses in Fungi Infections

Abstract

Fungi are cosmopolitan and the infections occur in more than a quarter of the world’s population with a very low inherent virulence. The increased incidence of these infections and the diversity of fungi causing them, has paralleled the emergence of growing population of immunosuppressed patients. Surveillance and elimination of fungal pathogens relies on the sentinel behavior of several cells of the innate immune system and the recruitment of effector cells. Defects in antifungal effector functions of these cells result in susceptibility to many fungal pathogens. The decision of how to respond will still be primarily determined by interactions between pathogens and cells of the innate immune system, but the actions of T cells will feed back into this dynamic equilibrium.