Montral -- Researchers at Universit de Montral and the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montral (IRCM) have successfully identified a defective immune cell population that determines susceptibility to candidiasis, a common and often debilitating infection in individuals infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). These findings, revealed using a model of candidiasis in transgenic mice expressing HIV developed by the same research group, represents a milestone in developing a treatment for the infection and, eventually, preventing it. They are described in an article of the July 1st issue of The Journal of Immunology.

Oral and esophageal Candida albicans infections, which often affect individuals infected with HIV, may limit food consumption and lead to weight loss, threatening patients' general health and well-being. Of added concern, treatment of candidiasis in these patients is often complicated by strains of Candida albicans resistant to conventional antifungal therapies. The research project was carried out jointly by Dr. Louis de Repentigny, Director of the Medical Mycology Laboratory and Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Faculty of Medicine of Universit de Montral, and at CHU Sainte-Justine, and Dr. Paul Jolicoeur, Director of the Molecular Biology Research Unit at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montral (IRCM), researcher in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Faculty of Medicine of Universit de Montral, associate member of the McGill University Faculty of Medicine and holder of the Canada Research Chair on Infectious and Parasitic Diseases and Dr Zaher Hanna, Associate Director in the same Unit, researcher in the Department of Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Universit de Montral, associate member of the McGill University Division of Experimental Medicine.

Drs de Repentigny, Jolicur and Hanna have for the first time succeeded in demonstrating that defective CD4+
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Contact: Sophie Langlois
sophie.langlois@umontreal.ca
514-343-7704
University of Montreal
21-Jun-2006

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