In Vitro Antifungal Activity of Epigallocatechin 3-O-Gallate against Clinical Isolates of Dermatophytes

Previously, we reported that epigallocatechin 3-O-gallate (EGCg) has growth-inhibitory effect on clinical isolates of Candida species. In this study, we investigated the antifungal activity of EGCg and antifungal agents against thirty-five of dermatophytes clinically isolated by the international guidelines (M38-A2). All isolates exhibited good susceptibility to EGCg (MIC50, 2-4 µg/mL, MIC90, 4-8 µg/mL, and geometric mean (GM) MICs, 3.36-4 µg/mL) than those of fluconazole (MIC50, 2-16 µg/mL, MIC90, 4-32 µg/mL, and GM MICs, 3.45-25.8 µg/mL) and flucytosin (MIC50, MIC90, and GM MICs, >64 µg/mL), although they were less susceptible to other antifungal agents, such as amphotericin B, itraconazole, and miconazole. These activities of EGCg were approximately 4-fold higher than those of fluconazole, and were 4 to 16-fold higher than flucytosin. This result indicates that EGCg can inhibit pathogenic dermatophyte species. Therefore, we suggest that EGCg may be effectively used solely as a possible agent or combined with other antifungal agents for antifungal therapy in dermatophytosis

MOLECULAR IDENTIFICATION AND ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE PATTERN OF SEVEN CLINICAL ISOLATES OF Nocardia spp. IN BRAZIL

Nocardia é um microorganismo ubiquitário relacionado a infecções piogranulomatosas, com difícil resolução tecidual em humanos e animais. A doença é mundialmente emergente devido ao aumento de doenças e tratamentos imunossupressores. Este relato de casos ocorridos no Brasil visa apresentar a identificação molecular dos isolados e o padrão de sensibilidade a antimicrobianos por disco-difusão e concentração inibitória mínima (CIM) através de fitas E-test®. Os casos ocorreram em homens, em idade adulta. Três quadros foram cutâneos, dois pulmonares, um neurológico e um sistêmico. O quadro respiratório, o neurológico e um sistêmico estavam associados à doença ou terapia imunossupressoras. O sequenciamento do gene 16S rRNA (1491pb) possibilitou a identificação de quatro isolados de Nocardia farcinica, dois de Nocardia nova e um de Nocardia asiatica. N. farcinica foi observada em dois casos dermatológicos, um pulmonar e um quadro sistêmico, N. nova foi isolada de um caso neurológico e outro pulmonar; e N. asiatica em um caso dermatológico. O teste de disco-difusão mostrou que amicacina (100%), amoxicilina/clavulanato (100%), cefalexina (100%) e ceftiofur (100%) foram mais efetivos; enquanto gentamicina (43%), sulfametoxazol/trimetoprim (43%) e ampicilina (29%) foram menos efetivos. No entanto, no teste de concentração inibitória mínima (CIM), apenas um dos quatro isolados da espécie Nocardia farcinica mostrou-se resistente a sulfametoxazole-trimetropina.Nocardia is a ubiquitous microorganism related to pyogranulomatous infection, which is difficult to treat in humans and animals. The occurrence of the disease is on the rise in many countries due to an increase in immunosuppressive diseases and treatments. This report of cases from Brazil presents the genotypic characterization and the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern using the disk-diffusion method and inhibitory minimal concentration with E-test® strips. In summary, this report focuses on infections in young adult men, of which three cases were cutaneous, two pulmonary, one neurological and one systemic. The pulmonary, neurological and systemic cases were attributed to immunosuppressive diseases or treatments. Sequencing analysis of the 16S rRNA segments (1491 bp) identified four isolates of Nocardia farcinica, two isolates of Nocardia nova and one isolate of Nocardia asiatica. N. farcinica was involved in two cutaneous, one systemic and other pulmonary cases; N. nova was involved in one neurological and one pulmonary case; and Nocardia asiatica in one cutaneous case. The disk-diffusion antimicrobial susceptibility test showed that the most effective antimicrobials were amikacin (100%), amoxicillin/clavulanate (100%), cephalexin (100%) and ceftiofur (100%), while isolates had presented most resistance to gentamicin (43%), sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (43%) and ampicillin (29%). However, on the inhibitory minimal concentration test (MIC test), only one of the four isolates of Nocardia farcinica was resistant to sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim

Isolation and drug susceptibility of Candida parapsilosis sensu lato and other species of C. parapsilosis complex from patients with blood stream infections and proposal of a novel LAMP identification method for the species

Candida parapsilosis complex (CPC) is the third Candida species isolated in blood cultures of patients from our Hospital, following C. albicans and C. tropicalis. From 2006 to 2010, the median annual distribution of CPC was 8 cases/year. Records of 36 patients were reviewed. CPC were 31 (86.1 %) C. parapsilosis; 4 (11.1 %) C. orthopsilosis; and 1 (2.8 %) C. metapsilosis. Clinical characteristics were central venous catheter, 34 (94.4 %); parental nutrition, 25 (70 %); surgery, 27 (57.9 %); prior bacteremia, 20 (51.3 %); malignancy, 18 (50 %). General mortality was 47.2 %. Death was higher in immunosuppressed patients (17 vs. 11; p = 0.003). Three out four (75 %) patients with C. orthopsilosis and 14 out 31 (45.2 %) with C. parapsilosis died (p = 0.558). Thirty-nine individual isolates were tested for susceptibility to seven antifungal drugs, with MICs values showing susceptibility to all of them. Two isolates, one C. orthopsilosis and one C. parapsilosis, had fluconazole MIC = 4 mu g/mL. Differentiation among CPC has implication in caring for patients with invasive candidiasis since there are differences in virulence, pathogenicity and drug susceptibility. A method targeting the topoisomerase II gene based on loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) was developed. LAMP emerges as a promising tool for the identification of fungal species due to the high sensitivity and specificity. LAMP can be performed at the point-of-care, being no necessary the use of expensive equipment. In our study, the method was successful comparing to the DNA sequencing and proved to be a reliable and fast assay to distinguish the three species of CPC1791-25362sem informaçã

Phylogeny of Aspergillus viridinutans species complex phylogeny inferred from combined data: BenA, CaM, act, RPB2

Phylogenetic relationships of the section Aspergillus viridinutans species complex members inferred from Bayesian analysis of the combined, 4-gene data set of β-tubulin (benA), calmodulin (CaM), actin (act) and RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (RPB2) genes. Bayesian posterior probability (PP) and Maximum likelihood bootstrap support (BS) are appended to nodes; only PP ≥ 90% and BS ≥ 70% and are shown; lower supports are indicated with a hyphen, whereas asterisks indicate full support (1.00 PP or 100% BS); ex-type strains are designated by a superscript T; species names in quotes are considered synonyms. The tree is rooted with Aspergillus lentulus NRRL 35552. The geographic origin, and reproductive mode with MAT idiomorph (if known) is designated by icons before the isolate number while substrate of origin is designated by icons after isolate number (see legend)