Arkansas Children’s Research Institute receives $3 million to study deadly fungus

A pair of infectious disease experts are establishing an emerging research program at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute (ACRI) to address a germ considered to be the leading cause of death for patients with weakened immune systems.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have awarded grants worth more than $3 million to ACRI principal investigators Praveen Juvvadi and William Steinbach, who also serves as chief pediatrician at Arkansas Children’s and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine. Juvvadi is also an associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases at UAMS.

Aspergillus fumigatus is a relatively common fungus found in the environment in places like decaying leaf litter. It is a leading cause of death among people with compromised immune systems, a population that includes children with chronic illnesses. The fungus’ mortality rate exceeds 40%. Health care teams have trouble fighting Aspergillus fumigatus because the germ adapts and becomes stronger against currently available treatments.

Scientists do not fully understand how this fungus thrives, but Juvvadi and Steinbach have identified mechanisms they believe may be responsible for its rapid growth and reproduction. The NIH funding will help them understand the mechanism of how protein phosphatase calcineurin and protein kinase A drive Aspergillus fumigatus’ growth, contribute to its spread and strengthen its ability to resist antifungal medications.

“The World Health Organization recently named Aspergillus fumigatus as among the most critical fungal threats facing the world. For children with compromised immune systems, this research will embody Arkansas Children’s mission of creating a healthier tomorrow,” Steinbach said. “These findings could promise a future that many of those patients are not guaranteed today.”

Juvvadi and Steinbach hope their findings will lead to the identification of newer drug targets and contribute to the development of new treatments that directly attack these mechanisms, making it more difficult for the fungus to survive.

Their NIH funding will flow through two grants: a five-year, $2.8 million R01 award and a two-year, $438,000 R21 award.

“We are thrilled with NIH’s support of this work through two awards in the same cycle,” Juvvadi said. “This funding will help us reach critical insights into Aspergillus fumigatus’ survival strategies and bring us one step closer to developing life-saving therapies for patients as they fight this infection.”