Abstract
In recent decades, fungal infections have emerged as an important health problem associated with more people who present deficiencies in the immune system, such as HIV or transplanted patients. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the emerging fungal pathogens with a unique characteristic: its presence in many food products. S. cerevisiae has an impeccably good food safety record compared to other microorganisms like virus, bacteria and some filamentous fungi. However, humans unknowingly and inadvertently ingest large viable populations of S. cerevisiae (home-brewed beer or dietary supplements that contain yeast). In the last few years, researchers have studied the nature of S. cerevisiae strains and the molecular mechanisms related to infections. Here we review the last advance made in this emerging pathogen and we discuss the implication of using this species in food products.
Highlights
Fungal infections are an extremely important health problem
In S. cerevisiae, the main role of proper oxidative stress response virulence has been suggested since a virulent strain mutant in transcription factor Yap1p, the main transcription factor involved in oxidative stress response that is unable to grow under oxidative stress conditions, presented low survival levels in human blood compared with the wild type or the YAP1 reconstituted strain (Llopis et al, 2012)
Especially S. cerevisiae, have an impeccably good food safety record compared to other microorganisms like virus, bacteria and some filamentous fungi
Summary
Fungal infections are an extremely important health problem. According to numerous studies, Candida albicans and other Candida species are the most remarkable pathogenic fungi which cause some 7000-28000 nosocomial infections annually (Pfaller and Diekema, 2007). We define opportunistic S. cerevisiae strains as those strains which show physiologic characteristics of yeast pathogens, such as growth, at 37 ◦C (McCusker et al, 1994; de Llanos et al, 2006), but unlike most other strains, can cause infections and kill mice (de Llanos et al, 2011). The infection mechanism of C. albicans, a fungal pathogen that is phylogenetically close to S. cerevisiae, is based on a first step of adhesion to human surface tissues and uses a family of proteins called adhesins.
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