Vaginal candidiasis (commonly known as vaginal thrush) affects 138 million women worldwide each year.

Researchers have studied four Candida species (which account for 90% of candidiasis cases), the pathways they use to infect the vaginal epithelium and the defence mechanisms of this epithelium.

The results of this international collaboration between the group headed by Dr. Toni Gabaldon (IRB Barcelona / BSC) and Dr. Bernhard Hube’s laboratory (Hans Knoell Institute / University of Jena) have been published in the journal Nature Microbiology.

Scientists at IRB Barcelona propose a new approach based on co-evolutionary information, multiscale molecular simulations and free-energy methods.

The study describes a surprisingly simple ON/OFF regulation for adenylate cyclase, a key enzyme involved in the regulation of many cellular processes.

The work has been published in the journal Science Advances.