914 Identification of malassezia furfur secreted aspartyl protease 2 (MfSAP2) in pityriasis versicolor and its role in the degradation of corneodesmosin

Malassezia is the dominant family of fungi residing on human skin and associated with many dermatological conditions. Among these diseases, only pityriasis versicolor (PV) has definite etiological connections Malassezia. In hyper or hypo-pigmented scales PV patients, enriched in its hyphal form which rarely present healthy skin. How contributes to disease pathology unknown. this study, we observed a distinct shift extracellular proteolytic activity when furfur transitions from yeast hyphae. We identified that expression aspartyl protease MfSAP2 dramatically upregulated at both mRNA protein level M. mycelial form. determined substrate specificity can degrade key corneodesmosome proteins, are intercellular adhesive proteins between corneocytes stratum corneum. 3D model treatment, clear degradation corneodesmosin, component corneodesmosome. Taken together, our study demonstrates secreted virulence factor potentially involved pathogenesis PV.