Murcormycosis Essay

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DISCUSSION
Mucormycosis, most commonly caused by Rhizopus species (6, 15, 60), is a life-threatening emerging fungal infection that occurs in patients with increased available serum iron (e.g. from diabetic ketoacidosis [DKA]), in patients immunocompromised by neutropenia or medications (15), or in trauma patients (61)(62). The infection is generally acquired by inhalation of spores that are ubiquitous in nature and cause either rhino-orbital (almost exclusively in DKA patients) or lung (mainly in neutropenic leukemic patients) disease (6, 15, 60). The infection is remarkably angiotropic, and rapidly disseminates hematogenously to infect other organs (6, 15, 60). Initiation of infection entails interaction of spores with nasal or lung epithelial cells. Further, damage to and penetration of the endothelial cell lining of the blood vessels is an important factor in hematogenous dissemination. Because even aggressive surgical and antifungal treatments are often ineffective, mucormycosis kills 40% to 100% of those afflicted (7, 63). The obvious unmet need for new, effective treatments and preventive strategies has been the driving force of our laboratory.
Our laboratory previously elucidated the process by which R. delemar invade and damages human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC)(42). R. delemar …show more content…

delemar remained unknown. The goal of my thesis was to identify these proteins that enabled interactions between nasal/lung epithelial cells and the fungus. Our hypothesis: Finding the receptors on nasal and lung epithelial cells that bind to R. delemar and result in damage to both mammalian cell lines would help in understanding how the infection is initiated. Such knowledge can potentially be used to design blocking strategies to prevent the initiation of

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