Isolate specific transcriptome changes exerted by isavuconazole treatment in Candida auris
Invasive fungal infections are important healthcare associated disease worldwide especially in intensive care units More recently, Candida auris a multidrug and potentially pan-resistant species has globally emerged as a new nosocomial pathogen, which has been already reported from at least 50 countries on six continents. Clinical studies showed that previously well-defined phylogenetic C. auris clades display significant differences regarding their pathogenicity, virulence, metabolism and susceptibility profile to traditional antifungal therapies. Based on epidemiological data, isolates belonging to the South Asian clade show the highest ratio of resistance to fluconazole (97%), amphotericin B (47%) and this clade involves the highest number of multidrug resistant isolates (45%), which compromise the efficacy of applied antifungal therapy. In the past decade, a new broad-spectrum antifungal drug, isavuconazole (ISA), has been introduced into clinical practice. ISA is primarily approved for the treatment of invasive aspergillosis and mucormycosis, and currently, there are no available recommendations for the therapy of invasive Candida infections. In our previous study, we reported different ISA susceptibility profiles between isolates belonging to South Asian lineage. However, the global transcriptional - even isolate specific - response remained unresolved. Therefore, our study aimed to reveal those molecular events, which are associated with ISA exposure using high throughput RNA sequencing (RNAseq). Overall design: Comparative gene expression profiling analysis of RNA-seq data of isavuconazole treated and untreated Candida auris  cells.