The rise of Candida auris: from unique traits to co-infection potential

Authors:

Nadine B. Egger1,§, Katharina Kainz1,§, Adina Schulze1, Maria A. Bauer1, Frank Madeo1-3 and Didac Carmona-Gutierrez1

doi: 10.15698/mic2022.08.782
Volume 9, pp. 141 to 144, published 01/08/2022.

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Affiliations:

1 Institute of Molecular Biosciences, University of Graz, NAWI Graz, Graz, Austria.

2 Field of Excellence BioHealth, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.

3 BioTechMed Graz, Graz 8010, Austria.

§ Contributed equally.

Keywords: 

Candida auris, candidemia, fungal infections, yeast, biofilm, resistance, COVID-19, SARS-CoV2, pandemic, co-infection, nosocomial infection, global warming

Corresponding Author(s):

F. Madeo, Institute of Molecular Biosciences, University of Graz, NAWI Graz, Graz, Austria; frank.madeo@uni-graz.at D. Carmona-Gutierrez, Institute of Molecular Biosciences, University of Graz, NAWI Graz, Graz, Austria; carmonag@uni-graz.at

Conflict of interest statement:

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Please cite this article as:

Nadine B. Egger, Katharina Kainz, Adina Schulze, Maria A. Bauer, Didac Carmona-Gutierrez and Frank Madeo (2022). The rise of Candida auris: from unique traits to co-infection potential. Microbial Cell 9(8): 141-144. doi: 10.15698/mic2022.08.782

© 2022 Egger et al. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduc-tion in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.

Abstract:

Candida auris is a multidrug resistant (MDR) fungal pathogen with a crude mortality rate of 30-60%. First identified in 2009, C. auris has been rapidly rising to become a global risk in clinical settings and was declared an urgent health threat by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A concerted global action is thus needed to successfully tackle the challenges created by this emerging fungal pathogen. In this brief article, we underline the importance of unique virulence traits, including its easy transformation, its persistence outside the host and its resilience against multiple cellular stresses, as well as of environmental factors that have mainly contributed to the rise of this superbug.