Candida albicans is the most common fungal pathogen of humans and has developed an extensive repertoire of putative virulence mechanisms that allows successful colonization and infection of the host under suitable predisposing conditions. Extracellular proteolytic activity plays a central role in Candida pathogenicity and is produced by a family of 10 secreted aspartyl proteinases (Sap proteins...

Extracellular proteolytic activity of the human pathogen Candida albicans is due to the activity of at least nine secreted aspartyl proteinase (Sap) isoenzymes. SAP1-9 genes are differentially regulated both in vitro and in vivo at the transcriptional level. All SAP genes are translated into preproenzymes, which are processed by a signal peptidase and a Kex2-like proteinase. In vitro experiment...

Secreted aspartyl proteinases (Saps) are important virulence factors of Candida albicans during mucosal and disseminated infections and may also contribute to the induction of an inflammatory host immune response. We used a model of vaginal candidiasis based on reconstituted human vaginal epithelium (RHVE) to study the epithelial cytokine response induced by C. albicans. In order to study the i...

The infective larvae of Necator americanus were shown to secrete all mechanistic classes of proteolytic enzymes with two overall pH optima of 6.5 and 8.5 using fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled casein as the substrate. Since infective larvae are obligate skin penetrators, the effect of each of these enzyme classes against macromolecules derived from human skin was examined. Larval secretions w...

No: 69 (Poster) Health and Hygiene 238 POST ANTIFUNGAL EFFECT, PHOSPHOLIPASE AND ASPARTYL PROTEINASE PRODUCTION OF CANDIDA ALBICANS ORAL ISOLATES FOLLOWING EXPOSURE TO CHLORHEXIDINE A.N.B. Ellepola*, B.K. Joseph, Z.U. Khan and J.A.M.S. Jayatilake Health Sciences Centre, Kuwait University, Kuwait Faculty of Dental Sciences, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka *[email protected] An important viru...