On the Existence of Cross‐Reactive Antigens between Candida and Mycobacterium

Abstract

The existence of cross-reactive antigens between the genera Candida and Mycobacterium and their distributions among the following 7 strains of genus Candida and 9 strains of genus Mycobacterium were investigated by gel-diffusion precipitation and passive hemagglutination reaction: C. albicans 1001, C. krusei 1005, C. guilliermondii 1007, C. stellatoidea 1016, C. tropicalis 1003, C. parakrusei 10232, C. pseudotropicalis 1004, M. tuberculosis (H37Rv and Nakano), M. bovis (BCG and Miwa), M. avium (Takeo), M. phlei (Phlei), M. sinegmatis (Smegma and M607) and M. microti (Vole). Strong crossreactions between C. pseudotropicalis and various strains of Mycobacterium (H37Rv , Nakano, BCG and Miwa) were observed and weak cross-reactions between C. krusei and the same strains of Mycobacterium by both gel-diffusion precipitation and passive hemagglutination reaction. Cross-reactions were not observed by the same precipitation reaction between any other strains of Candida and any strains of Mycobacterium . By passive hemagglutination reactions, cross-reactions between C. albicans, C. guilliermondii or C. parakrusei and some strains of Mycobacterium were observed although the crossreactions between these strains were not demonstrated by gel-diffusion precipitation . Although existence of the cross-reactive antigens could not be demonstrated in the cells of C. stellatoidea and C. tropicalis by either gel-diffusion precipitation or the passive hemagglutination reaction, the cells of these two Candida strains could absorb the crossreactive antibodies from the anti-Mycobacterial sera which react to the antigens of C. pseudotropicalis and C. krusei. These results suggest that C. stellatoidea and C . tropicalis contain minor cross-reactive antigens which could not be demonstrated by direct methods. The results indicate rather wide distribution of the cross-reactive antigens among the genus Mycobacterium and of limited distributions among the genus Candida .

Specific antibody response to oligomannosidic epitopes in Crohn's disease

“…Different hypotheses concerning the origin of these antibodies could be proposed. They must take into account the widespread distribution of oligomannosides, for which the yeasts represent a privileged model, since they express a complex repertoire whose components may be shared by many unrelated molecules present in a wide variety of organisms (10,20,22,30). The first hypothesis to consider is that anti-S. cerevisiae antibodies may originate from immunization by yeasts.…”

“…A second hypothesis is that yeast mannan oligomannosides could correspond to epitopes shared by other microorganisms. On the basis of structural similarities (20,29,36), such crossreactivities could exist between polysaccharide moieties of yeast PPM and Mycobacterium lipoarabinomannans (LAM). To explore this hypothesis, all sera tested against yeast PPM (36) has not revealed any correlation between antibody levels against both antigens (data not shown).…”

“…Studies of the C. albicans PPM oligomannosidic repertoire (7,13) reveal that oligomannosidic epitopes may be shared by a great number of different unrelated yeast molecules (34,41,42). The corresponding epitopes also occur over a wide variety of organisms, explaining immunological cross-reactivities among yeast species, yeast genera (10), filamentous fungi (14), viruses (27), bacteria (20,30), and human glycoproteins (22). Having this in mind, the understanding of anti-S. cerevisiae antibodies in CD requires as a first step the structural identification of the oligomannosides which act as specific epitopes.…”

Assessment of Germ Tube Dispersion Activity of Serum from Experimental Candidiasis: a New Procedure for Serodiagnosis

“…However, most sera from mice infected with C. tropicalis had no or weak crossreactivity with C. albicans. Cross-reactive antigens between Candida and Mycobacterium have been documented by precipitin (1,8,9), passive hemagglutination (3, 8), allergic skin reaction (9), and complement fixation reactions (5). Recently developed "S" antigen of C. albicans is said to be the only one that does not cross-react with Mycobacterium (12).…”

“…(Part of this investigation was presented at the second International Specialized Symposium on Yeasts, [7][8][9][10] August 1970, Tokyo, Japan. )…”