**5. Conclusions**

In present study, we found that both IL-6 and IL-17A have a strong positive correlation with *Candida albicans*. Only IL-17A had significant positive association with ED visit times. There is a significant mediation effect of IL-17A on the association between *Candida albicans*

sensitization and ED visit times. Altogether, IL-17A is a potential mediator to link *Candida albicans* sensitization and ED visits for asthma. Patients with fungal sensitization, such as *Candida albicans*, who have worse outcomes may associate with Th17-mediated immune responses rather than Th2.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following supporting information can be downloaded at: https:// www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/biomedicines10061452/s1, Table S1: IL-17A level and the correlation between IL-17 and *Candida albicans* in asthmatic patients in males and females.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, C.-H.L.; Data curation, S.-H.L., B.-C.J., M.-T.L. and W.- H.C.; Formal analysis, Y.-R.L. and C.-T.K.; Funding acquisition, C.-H.L.; Investigation, C.-H.L. and Y.-R.L.; Methodology, Y.-R.L. and C.-T.K.; Project administration, C.-H.L.; Supervision, C.-H.L.; Visualization, Y.-R.L. and C.-T.K.; Writing—original draft, C.-H.L. and Y.-R.L.; Writing—review and editing, C.-H.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by Changhua Christian Hospital, grant number 110-CCH-MST-122.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Taiwan Changhua Christian Hospital (IRB number 120607; approval date: 20/11/2012)).

**Informed Consent Statement:** The protocol was implemented in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants provided written informed consent.

**Data Availability Statement:** Due to ethical reasons, these data cannot be made public.

**Conflicts of Interest:** All authors declare no conflict of interest related to the data collected and procedures in this study.
