Dr. Indrani Bose's Seminar, “Using RNA Interference to Understand the Virulence and Biology of the Yeast Cryptococcus Neoformans

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Recommended: Cryptococcus neoformans

On Friday, January 31, 2014 Dr. Indrani Bose gave a seminar about her area of research, and discussed her research objectives. The title of the seminar was “Using RNA Interference to Understand the Virulence and Biology of the Yeast Cryptococcus neoformans”. At the beginning, she first compared and contrasted the budding yeasts of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Cryptococcus neoformans. According to Dr. Bose in the mini-review, A Yeast under Cover: the Capsule of Cryptococcus Neoformans, “C. neoformans is a fungus that is ubiquitous in the environment, where it is found in soil, in association with certain trees, and in bird guano (16)” (1). She also stated because of its ubiquity, that most people had probably been exposed to it from a young age. I learned that Cryptococcus neoformans causes Cryptococcosis, which can lead to a pulmonary infection. In an immunocompetent individual, after the pulmonary infection has taken place, they will remain mostly asymptomatic, and in the end, they will survive; however, in an immunocompromised individual, usually either Meningitis or Meningoencephalitis take place, which can lead to an infection of the kidneys, or deep tissues. An infection of this stature can lead to death. The populations that are at risk to catch these diseases are AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) victims, patients that have had transplant procedure, and any person that is undergoing immunosuppressive therapy. According to Dr. Bose, “AIDS immunocompromised individuals have a 30-60% mortality rate, and 5-10% of those individuals will develop Meningoencephalitis.”
Typically speaking, humans do not experience fungal disease; whereas plants and animals do. There are a few antifungal medicines in use today, these are Amp...

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...cells that did well with URA-5 would survive treatment with 5-fluororotic acid, the cells that did poorly with URA-5 would not survive the treatment, and that a library was created for the genes to create a double stranded Cryptococcus neoformans RNA. Dr. Bose is now working toward her goals of discovering and developing drugs that can fight this fungi, and hopefully will become a medication to eliminate this disease, and save lives.

Work Cited:
1. Bose, I , AJ Reese, JJ Ory, G Janbon and TL Doering (2003). A yeast under cover: The capsule of Cryptococcus neoformans. Eukaryotic Cell 2(4): 655-663.

2. Stylianou, Marios; Kulesskiy, Evgeny; Lopes, Jose P.; Granlund, Margareta; Wennerberg, Krister; Urban, Contantin. Antifungal Application of Nonantifungal Drugs. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. February 2014 58:2 1055-1062; 25 November 2013.

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