An IL-1, IL-17, and IL-22 cytokine circuit controls vulvovaginal candidiasis independently of estrogen

Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) affects >75% of women, with considerable morbidity and high medical cost burden. While Type 17 cytokines (IL-17, IL-22) are critical for oral and dermal immunity to C. albicans, their role in VVC has been less clear. Th17 gene signatures are potently upregulated in VVC, yet impairment of individual Th17 components (IL-17A, IL-17R subunits, IL-22) does not worsen disease. Rather, estrogen activity is tightly linked to VVC, leading to a paradigm that hormonal pathways, rather than immune defense, dominate susceptibility. Here, we reveal a previously unappreciated role for IL-1/Type 17 in VVC that operates independently of estrogenic hormones. In contrast to mice lacking IL-17A, IL-17RA, IL-22, or IL-22R individually, mice lacking IL-17RA and IL-22RA1 together (Il17raIl22ra1-/-) exhibited high fungal loads and exacerbated tissue damage and inflammation during estrogen-induced VVC. In human vulvar epithelial cells, IL-17 and IL-22 drive synergistic signaling. IL-1R signaling but surprisingly not IL-23 was upstream of this response. Il17raIl22ra1-/- mice expressed high IL-1β yet did not control disease, indicating that IL-1 is upstream but not downstream of Type 17 responses. Unexpectedly, Type 17-dependent control occurred in the absence of exogenous estrogen administration and persisted even when estrus was prevented by progesterone treatment. Collectively, these data indicate that susceptibility to VVC is driven not only by estrogen sensitization but through combinatorial loss of IL-17 and IL-22.