烟曲霉菌严重有害于人体健康（图）
美国蒙大纳州的科学家们发现，通常的霉菌感染会使人的肺部微环境发生改变，从而诱发致死性感染。
在人体氧含量最充足的肺部，科学家们发现致病性烟曲霉的侵袭性生长和并发性炎症会引起肺环境供氧不足。
霉菌是丝状真菌的俗称，意即“发霉的真菌”，它们往往能形成分枝繁茂的菌丝体，但又不象蘑菇那样产生大型的子实体。其在干草、土壤和肥料中随处可见，当它们被人体吸入时会引起一系列的肺部感染疾病。其中最具有致死性的是烟曲霉，根据人身体的健康程度，它能杀死30%到90%的被感染者。其中对器官移植病人、HIV病人、接受化疗或其它药物所导致的免疫力下降的病人威胁最大。
该研究的论文发表在最近的《Plos Pathogens》杂志上，在Robert Cramer的蒙大纳州大学免疫性感染疾病实验室里，研究者们首次证实了肺部缺氧和真菌感染之间存在着紧密联系。
论文的第一作者，蒙大纳州大学的博士后Nora Grahl说道：“我们首先在感染烟曲菌小鼠的肺部检测到了乙醇，这提示其肺部正处于低氧环境下。通过后续一系列研究测试，我们证实了烟曲霉的感染引起了肺部微环境的缺氧，并且烟曲霉的醇脱氢酶引发了肺部疾病，最终对宿主的免疫系统产生严重影响。“ （生物探索 Jun译）
生物探索推荐英文论文原文摘要：
In vivo Hypoxia and a Fungal Alcohol Dehydrogenase Influence the Pathogenesis of Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis
Currently, our knowledge of how pathogenic fungi grow in mammalian host environments is limited. Using a chemotherapeutic murine model of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) and 1H-NMR metabolomics, we detected ethanol in the lungs of mice infected with Aspergillus fumigatus. This result suggests that A. fumigatus is exposed to oxygen depleted microenvironments during infection. To test this hypothesis, we utilized a chemical hypoxia detection agent, pimonidazole hydrochloride, in three immunologically distinct murine models of IPA (chemotherapeutic, X-CGD, and corticosteroid). In all three IPA murine models, hypoxia was observed during the course of infection. We next tested the hypothesis that production of ethanol in vivo by the fungus is involved in hypoxia adaptation and fungal pathogenesis. Ethanol deficient A. fumigatus strains showed no growth defects in hypoxia and were able to cause wild type levels of mortality in all 3 murine models. However, lung immunohistopathology and flow cytometry analyses revealed an increase in the inflammatory response in mice infected with an alcohol dehydrogenase null mutant strain that corresponded with a reduction in fungal burden. Consequently, in this study we present the first in vivoobservations that hypoxic microenvironments occur during a pulmonary invasive fungal infection and observe that a fungal alcohol dehydrogenase influences fungal pathogenesis in the lung. Thus, environmental conditions encountered by invading pathogenic fungi may result in substantial fungal metabolism changes that influence subsequent host immune responses.
