{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]],"date-time":"2026-09-24T16:21:27Z","timestamp":1790266887082,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":86,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,5,24]],"date-time":"2022-05-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1653350400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Ministry of Health","award":["STM.A130.20.102"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["STM.A130.20.102"]}]},{"name":"Ministry of Health","award":["016\/RID\/2018\/19"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["016\/RID\/2018\/19"]}]},{"name":"Ministry of Education and Science in the \u201eRegional Initiative of Excellence\u201d programme","award":["STM.A130.20.102"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["STM.A130.20.102"]}]},{"name":"Ministry of Education and Science in the \u201eRegional Initiative of Excellence\u201d programme","award":["016\/RID\/2018\/19"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["016\/RID\/2018\/19"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is one of the most common types of vaginal infections in women around the world and is often underestimated by both patients and doctors. Research on the pathogenesis of fungal vaginal infections over the last 20 years has resulted in a closer understanding of the virulence factors involved in Candida epithelial invasion and their mechanisms of action. Recently, attention was drawn to the enormous complexity of the interaction between yeast-like fungi and host cells, as well as the level of complexity of the host\u2019s response to infection and their impact on the course and treatment of VVC. Our work provides a broad description of already known and some new reports on Candida virulence factors (such as phenotypic switching or biofilm formation capacity) and their importance for tissue invasion in VVC. At the same time, we also focus on interactions with host cells and local innate immune mechanisms involved in the response to vaginal fungal invasion that are now considered equally important in this case. The presented review describes the most important aspects of the still unknown pathogenicity of Candida associated with vaginal infections.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms23115895","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,5,24]],"date-time":"2022-05-24T22:04:06Z","timestamp":1653429846000},"page":"5895","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":89,"title":["Virulence Factors of Candida spp. and Host Immune Response Important in the Pathogenesis of Vulvovaginal Candidiasis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"23","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1693-484X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paulina","family":"Czechowicz","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Wroc\u0142aw Medical University, 50-368 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Joanna","family":"Nowicka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Wroc\u0142aw Medical University, 50-368 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6597-9609","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gra\u017cyna","family":"Go\u015bciniak","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Wroc\u0142aw Medical University, 50-368 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,5,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"3","article-title":"Emerging Pathogens of the Candida Species","volume":"1","author":"Yang","year":"2012","journal-title":"Intech Open Sci."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"94","DOI":"10.3389\/fcimb.2020.00094","article-title":"Mechanisms of Pathogenic Candida Species to Evade the Host Complement Attack","volume":"10","author":"Singh","year":"2020","journal-title":"Front. 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