Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42427778›Full record

ArticlebioRxiv : the preprint server for biology2026

Calcium triggers

Gracen Gerbig, Arturo Casadevall, Sindhoora Raja, Jason L Sonnenberg, Maggie Wear

Abstract readPreprint
In one paragraph

Article in bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Gracen GerbigJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.ORCID 0000-0002-8953-2251
Arturo CasadevallJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.ORCID 0000-0002-9402-9167
Sindhoora RajaWolfram High School Summer Research Program, Champaign, IL.ORCID 0009-0002-8687-1722
Jason L SonnenbergWolfram∣Alpha, Champaign, IL.ORCID 0000-0003-0122-5108
Maggie WearJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.ORCID 0000-0002-8581-7831

Funding

Conjugate vaccines for prevention and treatment of cryptococcosis - COVID-19 Revision SupplementR01AI152078 · NIAID · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · PI CASADEVALL, ARTURO · 2020 to 2024
$5.1M
NIAID NIH HHS R01 AI152078
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The cryptococcal polysaccharide capsule is a unique eukaryotic virulence factor that is a target for the immune system and the development of therapeutic antibodies. Our understanding of capsular architecture is limited to a few studies suggesting that metal dications play a role. In this work we explore a mechanism of cryptococcal aggregation that depends on calcium phosphate precipitation. We describe the chemical and biophysical properties of calcium interaction with the predominant cryptococcal polysaccharide, glucuronoxylomannan (GXM). We show that cell aggregation is a pH-dependent and occurs in a calcium dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, this cellular aggregation phenomenon as well as interpolymer capsular polysaccharide interactions are unique to calcium dications and do not occur with other mono- or dications as shown by size exclusion chromatography and circular dichroism. Diffusion ordered spectroscopy nuclear magnetic resonance and ab-initio calculations support complexation of calcium with glucuronic acid (GlcA). The ab-initio calculations also suggest that calcium ions can complex up to four GlcA monomers. Not only does calcium act as a scaffold for the cryptococcal capsule, interacting with up to four glucuronic acid residues of GXM, but calcium phosphate treatment of cells reduces the anti-phagocytic properties of the capsule, promoting ingestion by macrophages and altering antibody interactions with the capsule. This work advances our understanding of the cryptococcal capsule, its biophysical properties, by providing a model for the critical role of calcium interactions with capsular polymers of

Indexed as

calciumCarbohydrate structurecomputational chemistryfungiglycobiologyhost-pathogen interaction

Identifiers

PMID42427778
PMCPMC13345219

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.