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null IDIGH Program Seminar (January 29, 2020)

IDIGH Program Seminar (January 29, 2020)

Where: At the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) Glen Site, block E, room M1.3509, 1001 Decarie Boulevard, Montreal, Quebec H4A 3J1

When: Wednesday, January 29, 12–1 p.m.

Speaker: Martin Hoenigl, MD
Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health
University of California San Diego, San Diego, USA

It’s a Fungal World: from fungal infection to translocation and non-AIDS events.

Fungi are ubiquitous in nature and found on and in our bodies as constituents of the human microbiome (i.e. the mycobiome). Of the estimated 5.1 million different species of fungi in the world, only around 300 cause disease regularly in humans. Fungal infections today are among the most difficult diseases to diagnose, with diagnosis often relying on detection of fungal antigens and cell wall components. 1,3 β-D glucan (BDG) is a fungal cell wall polysaccharide produced by ascomycete fungi including Candida albicans and other fungal species that are predominant in the human gastrointestinal tract mycobiome. Recently it has been shown that in the absence of an invasive fungal infection blood BDG levels may serve as a marker of microbial translocation in patient populations with hypoperfusion of the gut and those with persistent inflammation, including patients with HIV infection. In HIV infection, blood BDG levels have been shown to correlate with other biomarkers of microbial translocation and immune activation and predict cardiopulmonary morbidity, and neurocognitive impairment. Preliminary findings even suggest that BDG represents a potential therapeutic target for preventing non-AIDS events.

Click here to view the poster for this event.