Presented by

Dr. Lucía Monteoliva Díaz

Candida albicans can be part of the host microbiota; however, if the balance of the normal microbiota is disrupted or the immune defences are compromised a scenario of infection can arise. Invasive candidiasis is an important health-care associated infection being the dimorphic transition yeast-to hypha a crucial virulence trait. We have made different proteomic approaches to study host–pathogen complex interplay in order to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of invasive candidiasis. They include shot-gun proteomics to analyse C. albicans-macrophage interaction or immunoproteomic studies to look for diagnostic biomarkers. On the C. albicansside, taking into account that the extracellular proteins are the initial points of contact between Candida albicansand the host, its proteomic analysis has been one of our main objectives. We have identified the C. albicans surfome of yeast, hypha and hypha after interaction with human sera founding several new interesting proteins, some of them involved in host interaction. Furthermore, C. albicans secretome including extracellular vesicles wasstudied. These studies have allowed us to propose the extracellular vesicles as a relevant mechanism of fungal cells to secrete proteins without signal peptide. Also, we have found relevant differences in structure and protein cargo of extracellular vesicles from yeast or hypha cells and that differential secretion of TNFafrom human macrophage in contact with these different types of vesicles. Furthermore, we have found interesting extracelluar proteins, including new vaccine candidates as the protein Bgl2. In conclusion, all these data about host-pathogen interaction can also bring new insights for the development of new antifungal therapies or vaccines.