Albumin, the most abundant protein in human blood, protects against mucormycosis, a rare but frequently fatal fungal infection, according to research published in Nature. The discovery points toward a potential new treatment strategy for a disease with severely limited options.
The international study, led by George Chamilos, MD, and his team at the University of Crete and the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, found that patients diagnosed with mucormycosis had significantly lower albumin levels than patients fighting other fungal infections. Low albumin, a condition called hypoalbuminemia, emerged as the strongest predictor of death across patient groups on multiple continents.
What Mucormycosis Does
Mucormycosis, caused by Mucorales fungi and commonly called “black fungus,” can spread through the body with extreme speed. It kills up to half of those infected, and in certain patients the diagnosis carries an almost certain risk of death. Cases surged in India during the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily among people with diabetes, weakened immune systems, or malnutrition.
Given how fast the infection progresses, identifying who is at high risk before disease takes hold matters enormously. The study suggests hypoalbuminemia could serve as exactly that kind of early-warning biomarker.
How Albumin Fights the Fungus
Professor Ashraf Ibrahim, PhD, a senior author of the study and a researcher at The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation, explained the mechanism directly. “The study also tells us how albumin works on nullifying critical virulence factors including toxins and other fungal proteins involved in causing tissue damage and in aggressively invading human organs,” he said.
Laboratory experiments confirmed the relationship. When albumin was removed from healthy human blood samples, Mucorales fungi multiplied freely. Mice lacking albumin showed high vulnerability to infection, while restoring albumin levels provided significant protection. Importantly, albumin suppressed fungal growth without disturbing other microbes in the blood.
Fatty acids attached to the albumin protein appear to drive much of this protective activity. They interfere with fungal metabolism and block the production of proteins the fungus needs to invade tissue. Blood samples taken from mucormycosis patients showed elevated levels of fatty acid oxidation, which may partly explain their susceptibility.
Clinical Implications
“This is a remarkable finding and has the potential to change the way clinicians care for mucormycosis,” said Dr. Ibrahim.
The findings suggest that supplying patients with albumin enriched with free fatty acids could help prevent the infection from establishing itself. The research also opens the door to combining albumin-based treatment with immunotherapies targeting Mucorales virulence factors, work that investigators at The Lundquist Institute are actively pursuing.
- Mucormycosis kills up to 50% of those infected
- Hypoalbuminemia identified as the strongest predictor of death across multiple continents
- Albumin suppresses Mucorales growth without affecting other microbes
- Fatty acids bound to albumin block fungal tissue invasion
- Restoring albumin levels offered significant protection in mouse models
For a disease where treatment options remain limited and time works against the patient, a widely available blood protein with a newly understood defensive function represents a meaningful clinical lead.
Photo by RephiLe water on Unsplash
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