Adaptive response of microglial cells to in vitro infection by Candida albicans isolates with different genomic backgrounds

It has been recently demonstrated that Candida albicans isolates with distinct genomic backgrounds (namely, b and c genotypes) express different susceptibility to antifungal activity by human monocytes in vitro. We show here that, although comparable in their ability to undergo dimorphic transition and in susceptibility to phagocytosis by microglial cells, the b and c isolates show striking differences in terms of intracellular survival. Only the c genotype resists indeed to intracellular killing and eventually replicates inside microglial cells, that in turn respond to fungal infection, preferentially towards the c genotype, with nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) activation and increased Mip1α production. These data indicate that C. albicans-microglial cell interaction is strictly dependent upon fungal genotype, strengthening the potential significance of genotyping as prognostic parameter in clinical infections by C. albicans.