Publications by authors named "Wei Tong Hou"

Introduction: is a commensal fungus that colonizes most healthy individuals' skin and mucosal surfaces but can also cause life-threatening invasive infections, particularly in immunocompromised patients. Despite antifungal treatment availability, drug resistance is increasing, and mortality rates remain unacceptably high. Heat shock protein Ssa1, a conserved member of the Hsp70 family in yeast, is a novel invasin that binds to host cell cadherins, induces host cell endocytosis, and enables to cause maximal damage to host cells and induces disseminated and oropharyngeal disease.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapy is being explored as a potential treatment to address the challenges posed by resistant S aureus infections.
  • * Researchers are developing an all-in-one mAb aimed at neutralizing α-toxin and bicomponent toxins, showing promising results in animal models and lab tests.
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  • Infections pose a significant risk to immunocompromised patients, with high mortality rates from invasive candidiasis, highlighting the need for effective long-term vaccines.
  • The study developed an antifungal nanovaccine using Hsp90-CTD as an antigen and Polyethyleneimine (PEI) as an adjuvant, which successfully stimulated B cells to produce long-lived plasma cells.
  • Results indicated that the nanovaccine not only created stable nanoparticles but also led to a sustained antibody response in mice, lasting up to 12 months post-immunization.
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Recent decades have seen a significant increase in invasive fungal infections, resulting in unacceptably high mortality rates. Anidulafungin (AN) is the newest echinocandin and appears to have several advantages over existing antifungals. However, its poor water solubility and burdensome route of administration (i.

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is a common fungal pathogen in humans that colonizes the skin and mucosal surfaces of the majority healthy individuals. How disseminates into the bloodstream and causes life-threatening systemic infections in immunocompromised patients remains unclear. Plasminogen system activation can degrade a variety of structural proteins and is involved in several homeostatic processes.

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Invasive candidiasis (IC) is one of the leading causes of death among immunocompromised patients. Because of limited effective therapy treatment options, prevention of IC through vaccine is an appealing strategy. However, how to induce the generation of direct candidacidal antibodies in host remains unclear.

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There are increasing invasive fungal infections associated with non-albicans, which causes mortal infections in immune deficiency population. is a major non-albicans that exhibits intrinsic resistance to fluconazole and makes clinical treatment difficult. Previous studies revealed that C-type lectin receptors (CLRs) Dectin-1 plays critical roles in host defense against infections.

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