UCSF Finds Candida auris Hides in Hair Follicles, Killing About 3,000 U.S. Patients a Year
Updated
Updated · SciTechDaily · Aug 15
UCSF Finds Candida auris Hides in Hair Follicles, Killing About 3,000 U.S. Patients a Year
2 articles · Updated · SciTechDaily · Aug 15
Summary
Science-published UCSF research found Candida auris persists on skin by settling into hair follicles, unlike Candida albicans, which mice cleared within days.
Exposed chitin on the fungus’s cell wall triggered interferon gamma around hair follicles, suppressing IL-17 antifungal defenses and slowing normal cell turnover.
That immune rerouting helps explain why C. auris is hard to remove from skin even before it invades deeper tissues in medically vulnerable patients.
Researchers said the mechanism suggests two possible intervention paths: block chitin-driven signaling or shift immune activity back toward IL-17.
First identified in Japan in 2009, C. auris has become a major hospital threat and is linked to about 3,000 deaths each year in U.S. hospitals and long-term care facilities.