Effect of Candida albicans infection on experimental Autoimmune Encephalitis Development

Abstract

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a severe autoimmune disease that affects the Central Nervous System (CNS). Environmental factors such as infectious agents could trigger or exacerbate this disease. In this context, the objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of Candida albicans in the development of Experimental Autoimmune Encephalitis (EAE) that is a murine model used to study this disease. C57BL/6 mice will be infected with C. albicans before EAE induction, during the acute phase and also during the chronic EAE phase. The effect of fungal infection will be evaluated by clinical parameters (weight and score) and histopathological analysis of the CNS (presence of inflammatory infiltrates and fungi). The presumed deleterious effect will be evaluated by inoculation of C. albicans antigens (soluble and particulate) and gliotoxin. Cytokine production by spleen cells, immunophenotyping of T-cell subpopulations in the brain, determination of apoptotic cells and expression of IL-17 in the CNS will be evaluated to determine the immunopathogenic mechanism of C. albicans effect on EAE. (AU)