Intruder Alert: Cryptococcus neoformans

Abstract

Our bodies do amazing things. One of those amazing things is keeping out unwanted intruders that could get us sick or sometimes even kill a person. That is what our immune system is for. There are all kinds of things that our immune system deals with. Most of the time they are successful in destroying the antigen (or unwanted thing that has entered your body) but sometimes they are unsuccessful, and it spreads, or even uses some immune cells to spread throughout the body. Sometimes these antigens can be eukaryotic which means they are cells with similar makeup to our own cells, containing a nucleus and organelles. There is an antigen that causes respiratory issues in animals and is a fungus, it is called Cryptococcus neoformans.