About Candida Albicans:
Candida albicans protein is a pathogenic yeast that is found amongst the gut flora of around half of humans (although it can survive outside of the body of a human). Being a constituent of the normal gut flora, it contains microorganisms that live in the human mouth, as well as in the gastrointestinal tract.
Candida Albicans Function
Candida albicans is an agent of infection, and it does tend to be found in immunocompromised patients, such as those with cancer, AIDS, or organ transplantation. There is a delicate balance between normal fungus and the host that can occasionally turn into a parasitic relationship. This can end up resulting in infections developing, usually candidiasis, which occurs as a result of fungus growth. Candidiasis is an infection that is often detected in immunocompromised people, such as HIV patients. It has been found that the mortality rate of patients with systemic candidiasis, as a result of C. albicans is around 40%.
Candida Albicans Mechanism
C. albicans enolase biofilms have also been found to develop on the surface of some implantable medical devices, such as pacemakers. To infect the host tissue, the unicellular yeast form of C. albicans has to react to different environmental signals and changes to form into an invasive and multicellular filamentous protein, which is a process known as dimorphism. There are also some fungal attributes to it, that include the production of hydrolytic enzymes, dimorphic transition (as it can be both budding yeast and filamentous forms), as well as antigenic variability, switching different cell phenotypes, inert and biological substrates, and finally, the immunomodulation of any human host defense mechanisms.