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<i>Candida albicans</i> Sfp1 Is Involved in the Cell Wall and Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Responses Induced by Human Antimicrobial Peptide LL-37
oleh: Chun-Min Hsu, Yi-Ling Liao, Che-Kang Chang, Chung-Yu Lan
Format: | Article |
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Diterbitkan: | MDPI AG 2021-09-01 |
Deskripsi
<i>Candida albicans</i> is a commensal fungus of humans but can cause infections, particularly in immunocompromised individuals, ranging from superficial to life-threatening systemic infections. The cell wall is the outermost layer of <i>C. albicans</i> that interacts with the host environment. Moreover, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are important components in innate immunity and play crucial roles in host defense. Our previous studies showed that the human AMP LL-37 binds to the cell wall of <i>C. albicans</i>, alters the cell wall integrity (CWI) and affects cell adhesion of this pathogen. In this study, we aimed to further investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the <i>C. albicans</i> response to LL-37. We found that LL-37 causes cell wall stress, activates unfolded protein response (UPR) signaling related to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), induces ER-derived reactive oxygen species and affects protein secretion. Interestingly, the deletion of the <i>SFP1</i> gene encoding a transcription factor reduced <i>C. albicans</i> susceptibility to LL-37, which is cell wall-associated. Moreover, in the presence of LL-37, deletion of <i>SFP1</i> attenuated the UPR pathway, upregulated oxidative stress responsive (OSR) genes and affected bovine serum albumin (BSA) degradation by secreted proteases. Therefore, these findings suggested that Sfp1 positively regulates cell wall integrity and ER homeostasis upon treatment with LL-37 and shed light on pathogen-host interactions.