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Adaptive fungal immunity

Published on November 30, 2025   41 min

Other Talks in the Series: The Immune System - Key Concepts and Questions

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0:00
Hello, everyone. My name is Michail Lionakis. I'm a physician-scientist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health in the United States. Today, we'll talk about adaptive fungal immunity.
0:18
Estimates indicate that there are up to 5 million different fungal species in the environment, and yet, a very small fraction of them cause human disease. There are two major reasons for that. One, there are potent immune responses against fungi, part of which we will talk about today. Second, there is temperature exclusion for the vast majority of these fungi, which cannot grow in temperatures above 30 degrees. Therefore, they cannot survive in temperatures of mammals, particularly humans, that are 37°C and above. Now, what I've listed here in this slide is an abbreviated version of the major human fungal pathogens, and they're divided into three different morphological states: yeast, filamentous molds, and dimorphic endemic fungi.
1:10
These comprise the vast majority of pathogens that cause human disease. What's an important element to recognize very early on is that, with the exception of two superficial fungal infections that are highlighted here, vaginal yeast infections are caused by Candida species and trichophyton or dermatophytic infections that are superficial in the skin and the nails that can happen in otherwise healthy and normal hosts. Any infections beyond these two superficial fungal infections, especially when they're severe or refractory, should indicate to clinicians that an investigation is needed for an underlying host effect. These are not infections that happen in otherwise healthy individuals.

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