00:00 CU
Soil
Exts
Biosciences Dept
CU
Biosciences Dept sign
Wide
– Researcher working
CU
– Researcher opens fungus dish
CU
– Researchers face
CU
– Researcher closes fungus dish
Guide Voice: It’s present in soil
and in some trees and most of us have been exposed to it, But
Researchers at the University of Birmingham’s Biosciences
department, are studying this common yeast-like fungus known as
Cryptococcus, because, while it holds very little threat to the
healthy population, to people with weakened immune systems like
aids patients, it is fatal.
00:21 SOT Mark Pallen, Professor of Microbial Genomics,
University of Birmingham - “Criptococcus is an
important cause of meningitis and even more so now with the aids
epidemic going through the world. It primarily affects people who
are immuno-compromised and in some parts of Africa
it’s now one of the predominant causes of meningitis.
It’s even more common than meningococcol meningitis.
It’s uniformly fatal if not treated and even with the best
treatment we have in western hospitals 1 in 10 patients will die
from that infection.”
00:48 Researcher
at microscope
Researcher
holds tool to Bunsen burner
CU
– tool being placed into dish
Worm
moving on screen
CU
– Worms under microscope
Worms moving on screen
Guide Voice: At the University of Birmingham
they have uncovered new insights into this deadly fungal disease,
by studying the life cycle of a microscopic worm known as a
nematode, and examining its interaction with the Cryptococcus
fungus.
The nematode worm lives freely in soil, but when it ingests
Cryptococcus fungus, it builds up in the worms intestine, which
swells dramatically, leading to the worm’s death in four to
five days.What the researchers have discovered recently however, is
that some worms are more vulnerable than others.
01:17 SOT Doctor Robin May, Fellow in Patho-biology,
University of Birmingham - “One of the
interesting things we’ve found in the recent work is that
different worm species and different strains of worms from around
the world show dramatically different sensitivity to the fungus. So
for example the standard laboratory strains of C-elegns which
originates in fact in Bristol in the UK, this is a very sensitive
strain and dies in 4-5 days whereas if you take a related nemotode
like C. remanei (EM464) which originates in New York this is much
much more resistant and in fact there’s very little lethality
over a couple of weeks."
01:48 MS
– Researcher at microscope
ECU
– Researchers eyes at microscope
MCU
– image on computer screen of needle going into worm
CU
– image on computer screen of needle going into worm
MS
– Researcher at microscope
CU
– image of worm
CU
– image of worm
MS
– Researcher working
MS
– video of macrophage
CU
– video of macrophage cell
Guide Voice: What they had discovered was a
direct link between the lifespan of the worm and its ability to
resist infection for longer, indicating a stronger immune
response.
They also discovered that the sex of the nematode worm played a
role in its ability to resist Cryptoccocus fungus, since male worms
live up to 50% longer than hermaphrodite worms, and they found that
this immunity could be turned on and off by changing the pathways
that dictate the worm’s sex.
They are now building on this work by producing so-called
‘transgenic’ worms, in which specific genes of the
immune system are constantly turned on, in order to understand
which components of the immune system are involved in attacking the
fungus. At the same time they are examining the action of the
fungus on human defence cells or macrophages, to learn more about
its effects on people.
02:37 SOT Dr Robin May, Fellow in Patho-biology,
University of Birmingham - “One of the important
things about the macrophage study is that this is a real mammalian
cell so the macrophage that we use is found in all mammals so also
humans, these are white blood cells that patrol the body looking
for infections and when they find it they eat it and destroy it. In
the case of cryptococcus this system goes wrong and macrophage can
track down and eat a cryptococcus but then no longer kills it,
rather the cryptococcus then exploits its new position inside this
cell of the immune system to grow proliferate and eventually kill
this cell.”
03:07 MS
– Researcher at microscope
MCU
– image on computer screen of needle going into worm
CU
– hand on microscope control
CU
– needle under microscope
CU
– image on computer screen of needle going into
worm
Guide Voice: A process that for one in ten HIV
patients leads to death. What they are aiming for now is to develop
their discoveries with both worms and macrophages into a clearer
understanding of the basic biology of the fungus Eventually they
hope to find new ways of preventing an infection, which,
particularly in developing countries, is a major cause of death in
patients with immune deficiencies.
03:31
Ends
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