Yeast Nanometric Scale Oscillations Highlights Fibronectin Induced Changes in C. albicans

Abstract

Yeast resistance to antifungal drugs is a major public health issue. Fungal adhesion onto the host mucosal surface is still a partially unknown phenomenon that is modulated by several actors among which fibronectin plays an important role. Targeting the yeast adhesion onto the mucosal surface could lead to potentially highly efficient treatments. In this work, we explored the effect of fibronectin on the nanomotion pattern of different Candida albicans strains by atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based nanomotion detection and correlated the cellular oscillations to the yeast adhesion onto epithelial cells. Preliminary results demonstrate that strongly adhering strains reduce their nanomotion activity upon fibronectin exposure whereas low adhering Candida remain unaffected. These results open novel avenues to explore cellular reactions upon exposure to stimulating agents and possibly to monitor in a rapid and simple manner adhesive properties of C. albicans.