Information:

MSc. Joanna Szczepaniak

room: 5

phone: 71 375 6426

mail: szczepaniak.jo@gmail.com

About:

Infections caused by opportunistic species Candida albicans are mainly superficial, though sometimes persistent candiasis of mucosal membranes, skin, nails and nailbeds. Growing and more serious problem are candidemias, commonly seen in patients with high immunodeficiency caused by extensive antibiotherapy, chemiotherapy, organ transplantations, implantations or immunosuppressive diseases such as diabetes, cancer or AIDS. Additionally gaining resistance to known antifungal agents by C. albicans and, increasingly, multidrug resistance (MDR) causes antifungal therapies to become more and more ineffective. One of often observed mechanism of such resistance is overexpression of efflux pumps, also known as MDR transporters, which actively transport xenobiotics out of the cells. In C. albicans three such pumps were identified: CDR1, CDR2 (Candida drug resistance 1 i 2), that belong to ABC transporters (ATP-binding cassettes) and use ATP hydrolysis to transport substances and MDR1 (Multidrug resistance 1) from MFS family (Major Facilitator Superfamily), which use energy generated by proton transportation across the membrane.

In my research I am studying effect of different chemical compound on activity of ABC transporters of C. albicans using fluorescent method. My goal is to find substance which could inhibit their action and possibly become more effective help with antifungal treatment.