CCMB Scientists Reveal Metabolism as the Hidden Driver of Fungal Invasion and Antifungal Therapy
Fungi are everywhere, on our food, in the soil, and even inside the human body. Most of the time, they coexist quietly with us. But when they turn hostile, the consequences can be severe. Fungal infections are increasingly responsible for hospitalizations and deaths worldwide, yet they remain one of the most underestimated threats in modern medicine. Now, scientists at the CSIR–Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad have uncovered a crucial insight into what makes fungi dangerous in the first place and how we might stop them.
At the heart of the discovery is a simple but powerful idea: fungi don’t become harmful only because of their genes. Like an engine revving before a race, their internal metabolism plays a decisive role in preparing them for invasion.
Why Shape-Shifting Makes Fungi Dangerous
Fungi are remarkable shape-shifters. They exist in two main forms: a small, oval yeast form and a long, thread-like filamentous form. The yeast form acts like a scout, moving through the host environment in search of a place to settle. Once it finds a suitable niche, it transforms into filaments that can penetrate tissues, evade immune defenses, and cause aggressive infections. This shape-shifting ability is one of the main reasons fungal infections are so difficult to treat.
Inside the human body, fungi face constant stress: limited nutrients, rising temperatures, immune attacks, and competition from other microbes. These harsh conditions usually push them to switch into their invasive filamentous form. Until now, scientists believed this transformation was largely controlled by genetic networks. The CCMB study, led by scientist Sriram Varahan, reveals that metabolism is a hidden driver of this process.
The Metabolic ‘Short Circuit’ Behind Fungal Invasion
The researchers uncovered what they describe as a “biological short circuit” inside fungi. When fungi rapidly break down sugars through glycolysis, they generate sulfur-containing amino acids that act as a trigger for filament formation. In simple terms, sugar fuels the machinery that turns harmless fungi into dangerous invaders.
To test this idea, the team studied a strain of Candida albicans, a common fungal pathogen lacking a key enzyme needed for sugar breakdown. These fungi were metabolically immobilized. They struggled to change shape, were easily eliminated by immune cells, and caused only mild disease in mouse models. Strikingly, when sulfur-containing amino acids were added from the outside, the fungi regained their ability to invade.
A New Direction for Antifungal Research
This finding points to a promising new strategy in antifungal research. Instead of trying to kill fungi outright, a method that often leads to drug resistance, future therapies could aim to disarm them by disrupting their metabolism. It’s like cutting the power supply instead of fighting the machine head-on.
Beyond human health, the implications stretch into agriculture, where fungal diseases destroy crops and threaten food security. By exposing metabolism as the Achilles’ heel of fungi, CCMB scientists have opened a new path that could protect both lives and livelihoods, offering hope in a field that urgently needs new solutions.
