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Mucocutaneous and invasive Candida infections are common manifestations of immunodeficiency. In most cases, the cause of an impaired immune response (e.g., chemotherapy, HIV infection, diabetes) is evident. Two research groups recently conducted genetic and immunologic analyses of families containing many individuals who suffer chronically or repeatedly from superficial or invasive yeast infections but have no obvious immunocompromising condition.
Studying a family of Dutch ancestry whose members had recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis and chronic onychomycosis, Ferwerda and colleagues identified a polymorphism in the β-glucan receptor dectin-1 gene. In homozygotes, this mutation leads to defective surface expression of dectin-1 and thus to l…