The intestine is a shelter for trillions of commensal microbes called the microbiome, that coexist with their host. While the microbiome is critical for strengthening our immune system and protecting the body against infection it can also contribute to autoimmune and inflammatory diseases highlighting the complexity of the interactions at play. A groundbreaking collaborative discovery recently published in Nature involving researchers at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre is shedding new light on host-microbe relationships.

Prior to this work researchers lacked a reliable model for studying fungal commensalism because most fungi only transiently colonize the mouse gut. Our collaborative discovery provides an indispensable new model organism for understanding host-fungal interactions and their impact on the immune response to infection. This is particularly valuable because fungi are an often overlooked but crucial component of the intestinal ecosystem across all life forms adds Prof. King also Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at McGill University. 

This discovery opens up a number of new research opportunities. For example understanding how Kp enhances anti-helminth immunity could inform the development of novel therapeutic strategies. Moreover characterizing Kazachstania colonization in the human microbiome may help predict and understand human immune activation in other disease contexts such as asthma.

The King Lab at The Institute is deeply interested in how the microbiome shapes immunity to infectious diseases. Specifically the lab uses parasitic worms (helminths) to study intestinal immune responses. At one point the team made a series of intriguing observations such as unexpectedly low worm counts during infection in mice and yeast contamination in cultures grown from mouse intestines.

The King Lab team is now investigating how early-life Kp colonization may influence long-term immune development and disease susceptibility. It is also seeking potential connections between Kp colonization and human health outcomes in collaboration with scientists and clinicians from the McGill Centre for Microbiome Research studies that could inform therapeutic approaches for both helminth infections and immune-mediated disorders.

source: https://muhc.ca/news-and-patient-stories/news/discovery-commensal-fungus-shapes-anti-parasite-and-allergic-immune