Pearls Novel Strategies to Enhance Vaccine Immunity against

Coccidioidomycosis is a potentially life-threatening respiratory mycosis endemic to the Americas and caused by inhalation of spores produced by the molds Coccidioides immitis and C. posadasii. The dry, air-dispersed infectious spores (arthroconidia) are derived from saprobic-phase filaments that grow in semidesert soil of the southwestern United States and arid regions of Mexico and Central and South America [1]. Coccidioides is a dimorphic ascomycetous fungus with distinct saprobic and parasitic phases and is classified in the order Onygenales together with other genera of pathogenic molds that include Histoplasma, Blastomyces, and Paracoccidioides. The clinical spectrum of disease caused by these environmental pathogens ranges from a mild infection that resolves spontaneously to a disseminated mycosis. Inhaled spores of Coccidioides are small enough to colonize the lowermost reaches of the respiratory tree. Nonhuman primates experimentall