Slicing through the challenge of maintaining Pneumocystis in the laboratory

TL;DR

Scientists have found a way to keep a deadly fungus, Pneumocystis, alive in lab conditions, which could help study its behavior and treatment.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel method to maintain Pneumocystis in lung tissue slices, enabling new research on its biology and drug responses.

Findings

Pneumocystis murina can be maintained in precision-cut lung slices for several weeks.

Both trophozoite and cyst forms of the fungus can be preserved using this method.

The approach allows for studying virulence factors and antifungal drug responses in a lung-like environment.

Abstract

Pneumocystis jirovecii is a major fungal pathogen of humans that causes life-threatening lung infections in immunocompromised individuals. Despite its huge global impact upon human health, our understanding of the pathobiology of this deadly fungus remains extremely limited, largely because it is not yet possible to cultivate Pneumocystis in vitro, independently of the host. However, a recent paper by Munyonho et al. offers a major step forward (F. T. Munyonho, R. D. Clark, D. Lin, M. S. Khatun, et al., 2023, mBio 15:e01464-23, https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.01464-23). They show that it is possible to maintain both the trophozoite and cyst forms of the mouse pathogen, Pneumocystis murina, in precision-cut lung slices for several weeks. Furthermore, they demonstrate that this offers the exciting opportunity to examine potential virulence factors such as possible biofilm formation as well as antifungal drug responses in the lung.