AUTHOR=Van Dyke Marley C. Caballero , Thompson George R. , Galgiani John N. , Barker Bridget M. 

TITLE=The Rise of Coccidioides: Forces Against the Dust Devil Unleashed

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2019.02188

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2019.02188

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=<p>Coccidioidomycosis (Valley fever) is a fungal disease caused by the inhalation of <italic>Coccidioides posadasii</italic> or <italic>C. immitis</italic>. This neglected disease occurs in the desert areas of the western United States, most notably in California and Arizona, where infections continue to rise. Clinically, coccidioidomycosis ranges from asymptomatic to severe pulmonary disease and can disseminate to the brain, skin, bones, and elsewhere. New estimates suggest as many as 350,000 new cases of coccidioidomycosis occur in the United States each year. Thus, there is an urgent need for the development of a vaccine and new therapeutic drugs against <italic>Coccidioides</italic> infection. In this review, we discuss the battle against <italic>Coccidioides</italic> including the development of potential vaccines, the quest for new therapeutic drugs, and our current understanding of the protective host immune response to <italic>Coccidioides</italic> infection.</p>