ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Fungal infections are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients. Nearly 40 years ago, Bodey et al. made the critical observation that profound and prolonged neutropenia increases the risk for disseminated fungal infection (1). Since this critical observation, understanding for the mammalian immune response in defending the host against fungal disease has dramatically increased (2). Alongwith an enhanced understanding for fungal host defense has been the expansion in synthetic immunomodulatory and antifungal agents (3), which have altered the ability to treat invasive fungal infections (IFIs) in immunocompromised patients. Despite pharmaceutical advances in antifungal therapy, the fundamental requirement for surviving an IFI in the context of immunosuppression remains recovery in host immune function (4) (Fig. 1). Thus, the quest continues to define the host immune response to fungal pathogen and to understand the ability of fungi to evade immune detection and elimination.
