Immune response and essential oil activity against pathogenic Candida species ,,

The pathogenic fungi Candida albicans and C. glabrata are present on and in bodies of the majority of the healthy population. However, in immunocompromised patients, they can cause life-threatening diseases that are often hard to treat due to resistance. There are several strategies that can be employed to try and overcome this resistance. In the first part of this work, we try and uncover the mechanisms underlying the resistance of C. albicans biofilms against the murine immune system. Knowing the underlying mechanisms will make it possible to overcome resistance. There are three possible hypotheses that might explain this resistance. First, it is possible that the immune system is unaware of biofilm presence. Alternatively, the biofilm might steer the immune response away from an effective one and last the biofilm may be resistant to the efficient immune response that is mounted. By employing a combination of the subcutaneous catheter model system and the systemic infection model in mice, we try to estimate the contribution of each of these three hypotheses. In the second part of this work we research the vapor-phase-mediated antimicrobial activity (VMAA) of essential oils (EOs) and essential oil components (EOCs). Therefore, we first develop an in vitro assay to allow for the detection of the VMAA using standard laboratory equipment. After this, we assess the VMAA of a collection of over 200 essential oils and components against C. albicans and C. glabrata. As such we determine which EO(C)s are most active against these pathogenic fungi and possibly find chemical features within the components that determine their activity.status: publishe