{"id":17,"date":"2017-11-13T16:35:47","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T16:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/mitofun\/?page_id=17"},"modified":"2018-01-24T11:22:44","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T11:22:44","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/mitofun\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About MitoFun"},"content":{"rendered":"

The diagram below represents the \u2018division of labour\u2019, how Cryptococcus gattii <\/span><\/em>is able to survive in the immune system\u2019s cells (the macrophages).\u00a0 Cryptococcus gattii<\/span><\/em> is a sneaky pathogen which makes the macrophage a cosy environment in which to survive, instead of being destroyed.\u00a0 M<\/span>itoF<\/span>un aims to understand how this works and how to prevent it.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

This diagram shows that:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    A.<\/span>A macrophage is hunting for intruders.\u00a0 A macrophage is a large white blood cell in the body that ingests foreign particles & infectious microorganisms by a process known as phagocytosis.\u00a0 The intruders are pathogens – bacteria, viruses or other microorganisms that can cause disease (in this case Cryptococcus gattii<\/span> fungal cells).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    B.<\/span>The fungal cells are phagocytosed (ie. ingested) by the macrophage.\u00a0 Note the shape of fungal mitochondria (in yellow).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    C.<\/span>The macrophage releases hydrogen peroxide (H2<\/span>02<\/span>) to destroy the pathogens.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    D.<\/span>One of the pathogens becomes a \u2018bodyguard\u2019 of the other cells and destroys H2<\/span>02<\/span>.\u00a0 This is associated with a change in shape of the mitochondria, which are now tubularised.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  5. \n

    E.<\/span>The other fungal cells start to multiply (proliferate).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  6. \n

    F.<\/span>Proliferated Cryptococci<\/span> <\/em>are released from the macrophage.\u00a0 Note that the guard cell does not proliferate.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Read more in our publication \u2018\u201cDivision of labour\u201d in response to host oxidative burst drives a fatal Cryptococcus gattii<\/span> outbreak<\/a>\u2019, Voelz, Johnston A, Smith L, Hall R, Idnurm A, May R, Nature Communications, 2014, 5:5194.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    This project is funded by the European Research Council under the European Union\u2019s Framework 7 Programme (FP\/2007-2013)\/ERC Grant Agreement No. 614562<\/span><\/h6>\n\"\"\u00a0\"\"\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The diagram below represents the \u2018division of labour\u2019, how Cryptococcus gattii is able to survive in the immune system\u2019s cells (the macrophages).\u00a0 Cryptococcus gattii is a sneaky pathogen which makes the macrophage a cosy environment in which to survive, instead of being destroyed.\u00a0 MitoFun aims to understand how this works and how to prevent it…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"fullwidth.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-17","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","bones-thumb-600":"","bones-thumb-300":"","promobox":"","ab-block-post-grid-landscape":"","ab-block-post-grid-square":"","post-thumbnail":""},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"

    The diagram below represents the \u2018division of labour\u2019, how Cryptococcus gattii is able to survive in the immune system\u2019s cells (the macrophages).\u00a0 Cryptococcus gattii is a sneaky pathogen which makes the macrophage a cosy environment in which to survive, instead of being destroyed.\u00a0 MitoFun aims to understand how this works and how to prevent it. This diagram shows that: A.A macrophage is hunting for intruders.\u00a0 A macrophage is a large white blood cell in the body that ingests foreign particles & infectious microorganisms by a process known as phagocytosis.\u00a0 The intruders are pathogens – bacteria, viruses or other microorganisms that…<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"","author_info_v2":{"name":"Simon Levermore","url":"https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/mitofun\/author\/levermsj\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/mitofun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/mitofun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/mitofun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/mitofun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/mitofun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/mitofun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105,"href":"https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/mitofun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17\/revisions\/105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/mitofun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}