Metabolism and morphogenesis of human pathogenic fungi

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Matthias Brock
• Subject Area: Parasitology and Biology of Tropical Infectious Disease Pathogens
• Term: from 2004 to 2006
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5426828

Opportunistic human pathogenic fungi cause growing problems in transplantation medicine and therapy of AIDS patients. Only little is known about the way an infection is manifested and which determinants are essential to maintain and grow inside a host. Primary metabolism might play a major role and suppression of fungal metabolism seems to be a suitable target for drug development. However, care has to be taken to choose metabolic features, which are distinct from the hosts metabolism. Lysine is an essential amino acid for humans but can be generated de novo by fungi via the a-aminoadipic acid pathway. Therefore, our aim is to rule out the importance of lysine biosynthesis in development of an invasive aspergillosis mediated by Aspergillus fumigatus. We will investigate the role of different genes involved in lysine biosynthesis on the potential to cause an infection. Studies will involve macrophage assays and animal models in order to proof reduction of virulence. Another task will be the biochemical characterisation of selected enzymes, in order to obtain an idea about substrate specificity and potential inhibitors, insights, which might be useful in the development of new drugs for therapy.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1160: Colonisation and Infection by Human-pathogenic Fungi