Humans Are Selectively Exposed to Pneumocystis jirovecii.
Ousmane H CisseLiang MaChao JiangMichael Paul SnyderJoseph A KovacsPublished in: mBio (2020)
Environmental exposure has a significant impact on human health. While some airborne fungi can cause life-threatening infections, the impact of environment on fungal spore dispersal and transmission is poorly understood. The democratization of shotgun metagenomics allows us to explore important questions about fungal propagation. We focus on Pneumocystis, a genus of host-specific fungi that infect mammals via airborne particles. In humans, Pneumocystis jirovecii causes lethal infections in immunocompromised patients if untreated, although its environmental reservoir and transmission route remain unclear. Here, we attempt to clarify, by analyzing human exposome metagenomic data sets, whether humans are exposed to different Pneumocystis species present in the air but only P. jirovecii cells are able to replicate or whether they are selectively exposed to P. jirovecii Our analysis supports the latter hypothesis, which is consistent with a local transmission model. These data also suggest that healthy carriers are a major driver for the transmission.
Keyphrases
- human health
- risk assessment
- end stage renal disease
- particulate matter
- induced apoptosis
- newly diagnosed
- electronic health record
- climate change
- endothelial cells
- chronic kidney disease
- big data
- prognostic factors
- cell cycle arrest
- peritoneal dialysis
- machine learning
- intensive care unit
- cell proliferation
- signaling pathway
- oxidative stress
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- life cycle
- patient reported
- acute respiratory distress syndrome