About
Interaction between host immunity and fungus starts with the fungal cell-wall (CW) contacting immune cell. Although this fungal CW is composed of a complex mixture of polysaccharides, their immunotherapeutic applications have been underexplored. The reasons being, CW polysaccharides elicit an immune response but are poor immunogens, most of them are insoluble, and their tendency to aggregate forming particles lowers their immunostimulatory potential. Our project aims at overcoming these drawbacks, and exploring how the CW polysaccharides could be used in immunotherapies against fungal pathogens. We will take the advantage of our expertise on Aspergillus fumigatus, a major airborne opportunistic pathogen, for the proof of concept of our project, keeping in mind that the approach could be extended to other pathogenic fungi.
