{"doi":"10.1101/2023.03.28.534632","title":"Fungal melanin suppresses airway epithelial chemokine secretion through blockade of calcium fluxing","abstract":"Summary Respiratory infections caused by the human fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus are a major cause of mortality for immunocompromised patients. Exposure to these pathogens occurs through inhalation, although the role of the respiratory epithelium in disease pathogenesis has not been fully defined. Employing a primary human airway epithelial model, we demonstrate that fungal melanins potently block the post-translational secretion of the chemokines CXCL1 and CXCL8 independent of transcription or the requirement of melanin to be phagocytosed, leading to a significant reduction in neutrophil recruitment to the apical airway both in vitro and in vivo . Aspergillus -derived melanin, a major constituent of the fungal cell wall, dampened airway epithelial chemokine secretion in response to fungi, bacteria, and exogenous cytokines. Furthermore, melanin muted pathogen-mediated calcium fluxing and hindered actin filamentation. Taken together, our results reveal a critical role for melanin interaction with airway epithelium in shaping the host response to fungal and bacterial pathogens.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2023,"id":398895,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9451,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1175063,"name":"Kirstine Nolling Jensen","orcid":"0000-0002-7625-7529","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":896280,"name":"Arianne J. Crossen","orcid":"0000-0002-8572-6366","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1058914,"name":"Kyle J. Basham","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270136,"name":"Rebecca Ward","orcid":"0000-0001-6752-5600","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1058913,"name":"Christopher M. Reardon","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":562284,"name":"Hannah Brown","orcid":"0000-0002-9175-8209","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":856031,"name":"Olivia W. Hepworth","orcid":"0000-0002-0828-7582","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1175064,"name":"Patricia Simaku","orcid":"0009-0003-0658-0894","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1175333,"name":"Geneva N. Kwaku","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1175065,"name":"Kazuya Tone","orcid":"0000-0001-9898-4172","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":791218,"name":"Janet A. Willment","orcid":"0000-0002-7040-0857","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1175334,"name":"Delyth M. Reid","orcid":null,"position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":791216,"name":"Mark H. T. Stappers","orcid":"0000-0003-4154-7160","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":397654,"name":"Gordon D. Brown","orcid":"0000-0002-0287-5383","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":547129,"name":"Jayaraj Rajagopal","orcid":"0000-0003-3190-8647","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":284649,"name":"Jatin M. Vyas","orcid":"0000-0002-9985-9565","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":91983,"name":"Jennifer L. Reedy","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":78,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:19:51.724387Z","pmid":"37034634","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}