The study looked at skin and mouth yeast infections and found that patients' immune cells had fewer surface receptors compared to healthy people. When those cells were mixed with various substances, including the peptide thymalin, the changes in receptor levels were different, suggesting thymalin might affect immune cell function, but the research was done in a lab dish, not in real people.

27 patients with chronic candidiasis of the skin and mucous membranes have been examined with a view to study the expression of E-receptors and its changes after the incubation of T-lymphocytes with theophylline, levamisole, thymaline and Candida albicans antigen. This study has revealed that, in comparison with healthy persons, most patients show decreased expression of E-receptors, and the character of their changes after incubation with the above-mentioned preparations is essentially different. The deviations revealed in this study have been regarded as the modification of T-cell membranes, which is seemingly one of the reasons of the weak competence of T-cells. In its turn, the expression of E-receptors may be considered as an indicator of the influence of different factors on T-lymphocytes. Substances altering the level of cyclic nucleotides in the cell, the antigenic fractions of the fungal causative agent, the suppression or blocking the action of thymic hormone-like substances may serve as such factors.