What is Cryptococcus neoformans?
Cryptococcus neoformans is an encapsulated fungal pathogen causing fatal meningitis in humans. The infection, initiated by inhalation into the lungs, occurs mainly in immunocompromised individuals, but can also occur in healthy individuals. Cryptococcus neoformans is usually found in tissues in the yeast form. Infection of the brain and meninges is the most common clinical manifestation. In immunocompetent individuals, the initial infection is usually controlled and asymptomatic and the organism remains dormant in a lymph node complex, much like tuberculosis. Reactivation occurs in immunocompromised hosts where the fungus can spread via the blood to infect the central nervous system. Once C. neoformans reaches this stage it can cause meningitis that is uniformly fatal if untreated. Few antifungal agents exist and drug-resistant strains are emerging. There are four serotypes of C. neoformans. The serotype D was the first serotype chosen for sequencing studies at The Institute for Genome
