Off switch for life-threatening toxin found by Irish researchers

Researchers at NUI Maynooth have found the "off" switch for a powerful toxin produced by a fungus that is a life threatener for cancer and organ transplant patients. The discovery could lead to new treatments for these patients but might also point the way towards switching off other common fungal infections.

The dangerous Aspergillus fumigatus is one of the most common disease-causing agents affecting immunocompromised patients but is also a problem in food safety. It poses a significant risk in leukaemia, organ transplants and HIV patients and aspergillosis infections kill an estimated 600,000 people a year worldwide.

Prof Sean Doyle in Maynooth's department of biology has led a team for years studying the fungus and the harmful substance it produces, gliotoxin. The team's latest discovery tops all others however, a molecule called GtmA that shuts down the production of gliotoxin.

Prof Doyle described it as a “breakthrough” because learning how the toxin is switched off in one fungal species “will provide insights into how to do this with other human, animal and plant-disease causing fungi”.

He believes it may lead to pharmaceuticals and food additives that can diminish the production of this “extremely damaging toxin”.

Details of the work have just been published in the Cell Press journal Chemistry & Biology, and funding for the work comes from Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council. The team includes Prof Doyle with Drs Gary Jones, David Fitzpatrick, Rebecca Owens and Gráinne O'Keeffe and PhD student Stephen Dolan.