Fungemias have increased in recent decades, with high indices of morbidity and mortality. The agents of fungal infection isolated most often are yeasts, which can be acquired by direct contact with already colonized individuals. The present study aimed to detect yeast colonization in nursing students, and to study the possible influence of the hospital environment on colonization...
We describe a fatal case of imported coccidioidomycosis in India in a 22-year-old male who worked in Tucson, Arizona, approximately four years prior to his illness. The diagnosis was based on the presence of characteristic spherules with endospores in biopsy tissue of lymph nodes, bone and pus from a chronic discharging sinus in the left gluteal region and isolation of...
Forty-two patients with active paracoccidioidomycosis were randomized to receive itraconazole (50–100 mg kg d−1), ketoconazole (200–400 mg d−1) or sulfadiazine (100–150 mg kg d−1 up to 6 g d−1) for 4–6 months, followed by slow release sulfa until negativity of serological tests. All 14 patients in itraconazole and sulfadiazine groups and 13 in the ketoconazole group showed an...
We demonstrated and quantified by immunohistochemistry the factor XIIIa+ dermal dendrocytes (FXIIIa+ DD) in paracoccidioidomycosis skin lesions. Sixtyone biopsies were classified according to the tissue response in well-organized granulomas (group 1), poorly organized granulomas (group 2) and samples showing both kinds of granuloma (group 3). Ten biopsies from normal skin were...
Oral and vaginal candidiasis are the two most common forms of opportunistic fungal infections. However, the prevalence of each can be quite variable depending on the immune status of the host. While vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is equally common in immunocompetent and immunocompromised women, oropharyngeal candidiasis (OPC) is infrequent except under immunocompromised states...
Nucleic acid-based assays have good potential to complement and enhance the sensitivity and rapidity of conventional methods used in diagnostic mycology. The majority of molecular tests are polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assays focusing mainly on the detection of Candida and Aspergillus spp. from clinical samples. DNA extraction and purification procedures should be...
Italy is one of the countries participating in a prospective epidemiological survey of cryptococcosis set up in July 1997 by the European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM). Over a 30-month period 156 cases, all caused by Cryptococcus neoformans var. neoformans, were reported by 29 hospitals in 9 regions. An ECMM questionnaire was used to report the clinical presentation...
CD40 ligand-CD40 ligation is important in the development of T-cell-mediated immune responses. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of CD40L in recovery from histoplasmosis using a murine model of intratracheally induced infection. B6C3F1 mice were infected intratracheally with Histoplasma capsulatum yeast and monitored for clearance of the organism from the lungs...
Rhinosporidiosis was diagnosed in a domestic shorthair cat from a suburb of Washington DC, USA. The clinical presentation of protracted sneezing and epistaxis was associated with a polypoid lesion in the right nostril. Light microscopic examination revealed a polypoid lesion with numerous sporangia containing maturing endospores. Free endospores were present in the stroma of the...
The integrity of the cell wall depends on the synthesis and correct assembly of its individual components. Several environmental factors, such as temperature up-shift, treatments with mating factors or with specific cell wall-perturbing drugs, or genetic factors, such as inactivation of cell wall-related genes (for example FKS1 or GAS1) can impair construction of the cell wall...
Flow cytometry (FC) has the ability to discriminate a variety of cell parameters including cell size and complexity, and fluorescence intensity. As yeast cells or fungal spores germinate they undergo a morphological transformation from round oval shaped cells to elongate filamentous forms. To date, monitoring these events has been performed using microscopic examination...
The precise mechanism of the host defense that protects the nail from dermatophyte invasion is not known. Recent immunological findings in dermatophytosis suggest the hypothesis that the T helper 1 (Th1) response may play a role in protecting the nail from dermatophyte invasion. Our present study focused on interferon-γ (IFN-γ) release in patients with tinea pedis with or without...
Nosocomial bloodstream infections (BSI) in premature neonates are an important cause of morbidity and mortality. The early and efficient diagnosis of a neonatal BSI and the differentiation between bacterial and fungal BSI remains a challenging task. We compared the clinical features and blood test results in preterm infants with proven candidal or bacterial BSI in order to...
The menace of cryptococcosis has assumed global proportions over the years. The tropical climate of the Indian subcontinent offers a suitable environment for Cryptococcus neoformans, and the onslaught of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) pandemic since the early 1990s has substantially influenced the situation. Coupled with that are the advances in laboratory...
In recent years it has become evident that the structural polysaccharide chitin is synthesized from a family of enzymes encoded by multiple CHS chitin synthase genes, and regulated by an array of ancillary gene products that influence CHS activation and localization. Considerable attention has therefore been given to elucidating the function of specific CHS gene products in...
The production of chemokines at the site of a fungal infection is critical for effective recruitment of leukocytes to that site. Over 40 chemokines and 20 chemokine receptors have been identified. The most intriguing biological property of chemokines is that they often play non-redundant roles in vivo even though they are highly related, have multiple activities and bind multiple...
Emerging yeast pathogens are favoured by increasing numbers of immunocompromised patients and by certain current medical practices. These yeasts differ in their antifungal drug susceptibilities, and rapid species identification is imperative. A large variety of methods have been developed with the aim of facilitating rapid, accurate yeast identification. Significant recent...
A survey of dermatophytoses was carried out amongst primary school children in Borno State, Nigeria, during February 1997 to January 1998. A total of 2193 children aged 4–16 years were screened. Out of these, 154 (7·0%) were proved to be mycologically positive by microscopy, culture or both. Incidence was significantly higher (P < 0·05) in young children aged 7–11 years (8·1...
During a period of 1 year, out of 202 clinically suspected cases of tinea unguium, 53 (26%) were confirmed by mycological cultures for dermatophytes. Trichophyton rubrum was the most common fungus isolated in 46 (87%) patients, followed by T. violaceum in four (7%), T. interdigitale in two (4%) and Epidermophyton floccosum in one (2%). The disease was more common in adult males...
Sera from 305 dogs were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to determine presence of the antibody anti-gp43, which reacts to a specific antigen of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. The dogs were divided into three groups according to their origin: urban dogs (animals with little or no contact with rural areas); suburban dogs (from the urban outskirts); and rural...
Germfree transgenic epsilon 26 (Tgε26) mice, which express the full-length human CD3ε gene, have combined defects in natural killer (NK) cells and T cells were found to be extremely susceptible to oroesophageal (palate, tongue, esophagus) and gastric (cardia-antrum section) candidiasis. The gnotobiotic Tgε26 mice die, apparently from severe oroesophageal candidiasis, within 2–4...
In order to correlate the findings of two serological tests, double immunodiffusion (IDD) and immunoblotting (IB), with the clinical diagnosis and follow-up of paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM), 325 serum samples from PCM patients were tested at the beginning of specific therapy and after its completion. Group I included 245 PCM patients at the onset of symptoms without treatment. In...
Duration of therapy is an important factor determining patients' compliance in dermatomycosis clinical practice. We undertook a prospective, randomised, double-blind, parallel group study to investigate the efficacy and tolerability of once daily treatment with terbinafine 1% cream for 1 week, compared to its vehicle, in adult patients with interdigital tinea pedis. Efficacy was...
Arthroconidia from five fungal strains belonging to three Trichophyton species, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, T. raubitschekii and T. tonsurans, were tested against commercial chemical disinfectants and pharmaceutical antifungal agents. The chemical disinfectants included chlorine, phenol, sodium dodecyl sulphate and several quaternary ammonium salts, while the two pharmaceutical...