Candida albicans can cause infections ranging from superficial skin infections to life-threateningsystemic infections in immunocompromised hosts. Although several C. albicans virulence factorsare widely discussed in great detail, intrinsic host determinants that are critical for C. albicanspathogenesis remain less interested and poorly understood. In view of this, a model of Caenorhabditiselegans was used to study host longevity and immunity in response to C. albicans pathogenesis.The influence of C. albicans in pathological and survival aspects was evaluated using C. elegans.C. albicans hyphal formation in different C. elegans genetic backgrounds was evaluated. Moreover,several C. elegans fluorescent proteins as gene expression markers upon C. albicans infectionswere evaluated. C. albicans is pathogenic to C. elegans and reduces the lifespan of C. elegans inassociation with repression of the insulin/IGF-1-like signaling (IIS) pathway. Moreover, repressionof DAF-16/forkhead transcription factor increases aggressiveness of C. albicans by enhancing hyphalformation. In addition, infection of C. albicans increases lipofuscin accumulation, promotes DAF-16nuclear translocation, increases superoxide dismutase (SOD-3) expression, which coordinately linksbetween aging and innate immunity. Thus, we demonstrate here the strategy to utilize C. elegans asa model host to elucidate host genetic determinants that provide insights into the pathogenesis ofC. albicans infections.
Keywords: Caenorhabditis elegans; Candida albicans; DAF-16; immune response; insulin/IGF-1-like signaling (IIS) pathway; longevity.