 |
|
|
|
|
Gene Variants Behind Vulnerability to Yeast Infections
|
| | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >> Yeast infections, which are typically caused by Candida albicans, arise from imbalances in the body's internal flora, especially in the vaginal tract, although it can affect the nail beds, mouth and bloodstream.
"The vagina is a finely tuned ecosystem with almost a dozen bacteria and yeast forms, and as long as they're in harmony, it's comfortable," Goldstein explained. "But if you take antibiotics, for instance, and eliminate some of the normal bacteria, then the yeast that live there all the time have a field day."
A healthy body is able to detect the first signs of a yeast infection and dispatch immune cells to take care of the problem, but not when one of the mutations is present, explained Narendra Kumar, an assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Texas A&M Health Science Center Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy in Kingsville.
Text Continues Below
"It's like a burglary in your house," Kumar said. "First, the alarm goes off, and here the mutation alarm does not go off properly so you don't have the police force coming to your house. That's how it gets colonized."
Kullberg's study looked at one woman and her three sisters who had recurring vaginal yeast infections.
"We discovered that her immune cells did not react normally on encounter with Candida," Kullberg explained. "Neither she nor her sisters had any other recurrent or severe infections, which underscores that this mutation is very specific, and just affects the susceptibility to mucosal Candida infections, not to Candida bloodstream infections or to other microorganisms. This is an otherwise perfectly healthy young lady."
The mutation was found in the dectin-1 gene.
The second study looked at 36 members of an extended Iranian family, several of whom had a predisposition to yeast infections. Three died during adolescence, two after invasive fungal infections of the brain.
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >>
|
Copyright © 2009 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
Last updated 10/28/2009
|
|
SOURCES: Steven Goldstein, M.D., professor, obstetrics and gynecology, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York City; Anthony R. Gregg, M.D., board of directors, American College of Medical Genetics, and director, maternal and fetal medicine, and medical director, genetics, University of South Carolina, Columbia; Bart Jan Kullberg, M.D., professor, medicine, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen Institute for Infection, Inflammation, and Immunity, and chief, infectious diseases section, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Jeffrey Sands, Ph.D., professor and former chair, biological sciences, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa.; Narendra Kumar, Ph.D., assistant professor, pharmaceutical sciences, Texas A&M Health Science Center Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy, Kingsville; Oct. 29, 2009, New England Journal of Medicine
|
.gif)
