Scientists in Aberdeen are among a team of Europe's top researchers collaborating to try to find targets for new drugs to combat lethal fungal infections.
Over the last decade fungal infections have emerged as a growing threat to human health, particularly to those whose immune systems are compromised in some way. There are few new antifungal drugs on the market and currently the more serious infections are extremely difficult to treat.
Now the internationally renowned fungal research team at the University of Aberdeen have joined a major project which brings together 10 of Europe's best labs in an attempt to tackle the problem.
Professors Neil Gow, Frank Odds and Alistair Brown and Dr Carol Munro, microbiologists at the University’s School of Medical Sciences, are leading the Aberdeen team, which was awarded more than £190,000 from the European Communities 6th framework programme for their involvement in the project.
Professor Gow said: "It's an extremely exciting project to be involved in. What we are looking for is an Achilles heel in the fungi which could then be exploited by new drugs.
"We are trying to get more of an understanding of how the cell wall in the fungi, which pose a danger to human health, is built in the hope that this will lead to a ‘penicillin’ for fungal infections."
Scientists involved in the Specific Targeted Research Project or STREP are studying the microbes Candida and Aspergillus.
Candida is a yeast which lives in our body and is usually reined in by our immune system. Three in four women will get at least one Candida or thrush infection, but these are simple to treat. However, those with weakened immune systems are at risk from fungal infections and these people are not easily treated.
One in ten hospital patients will get a Candida infection and one third of cancer patients and organ and bone marrow transplant patients will suffer Candida blood infections.
Professor Gow said: “Often fungal infections receive little attention in the press because the blame for the death of the infected patient is attributed to the cancer or problem that led to the infection rather than the effects of the fungal infection itself. This has tended to obscure the real dangers that fungi can pose to human health in these patient groups.”
Aspergillus is a very common organism found on compost heaps, dead leaves and decaying vegetation.
Professor Gow said: "We breathe it in every day and if we are healthy then there is absolutely no problem. However, if our immune system is not functioning normally, Aspergillus infection can take hold and this can be a terrifying disease. Patients who contract it and who have a severely compromised immune systems have a survival rate of less than 10 -20 % if left untreated."
Aspergillosis - which is an infection, growth or allergic reaction caused by the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus – now represents the most common invasive mould infection worldwide. One in 25 immune-compromised patients who died in modern European teaching hospitals have been found to have invasive Aspergillosis.
The project runs for three years and involves the University of Aberdeen; Institut Pasteur in France; University of Amsterdam; INSA, France; CNRS, France; University of Salamanca, Spain; University of Heidelberg, Germany; University Complutense of Madrid; University of Dundee and Novexel, France.