FIG 1.
Comparison of virulence of C. albicans and C. auris in neutrophil elastase-deficient (NE−/−) mice and WT C57BL/6 mice. (A) NE−/− and C57BL/6J female 8-week-old mice were infected i.v. with 5 × 105 C. albicans SC5314 cells or 2 × 108 C. auris 0386 yeast cells. Mice were observed twice daily for 20 days for clinical signs of illness or mortality. The results are representative of five mice per inoculum. Survival times were statistically evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier statistic (GraphPad Prism, version 7), and P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Mice challenged with C. auris AR-0386 survived significantly longer than did control mice that received C. albicans SC5314 (P = 0.0023 for NE−/− and P = 0.0031 for C57BL/6). (B and C) In NE−/− mice, the fungal burdens of C. albicans and C. auris in targeted organs, the kidneys (B) and brain (C), are higher than those in wild-type C57BL/6 mice (P < 0.05); however, there is no significant difference between the two mouse strains (P = 0.25). Fungal burden in the brains of both strains remained low after C. auris challenge. Only 1 out 5 mice in WT C57BL/6 and 2 out 5 in NE−/− mice had detectable CFU in the brain. All fungal burden data were analyzed by a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA).