trichosporon asahii

BACKGROUND: Trichosporon is an emerging yeast that causes invasive infections in immunocompromised patients experiencing prolonged hospitalisation, indwelling venous catheters and neutropenia. METHODS: This retrospective observational cohort study analysed invasive Trichosporon infections (ITIs) occurring between January 2005 and December 2022 at three tertiary hospitals and compared the clinical characteristics and prognostic factors of ITIs caused by Trichosporon asahii and non-T...

Trichosporon spp. endocarditis is a severe and hard-to-treat infection. Immunosuppressed subjects and carriers of prosthetic valves or intracardiac devices are at risk. This article presents the case of an immunocompetent 74-year-old man affected by endocarditis of the prosthetic aortic valve. After Bentall surgery, cultures of the removed valve demonstrated Trichosporon ashaii as the etiological agent. The patient was treated with amphotericin B at first and subsequently with fluconazole. Given the fragility of the patient and the aggressiveness of the pathogen, life-long prophylactic therapy with fluconazole was prescribed...

Systemic infections caused by rare yeasts are increasing given the rise in immunocompromised or seriously ill patients. Even though globally, the clinical significance of these emerging opportunistic yeasts is increasingly being recognized, less is known about the epidemiology of rare yeasts in Latin America. This review collects, analyzes, and contributes demographic and clinical data from 495 cases of infection caused by rare yeasts in the region. Among all cases, 32 species of rare yeasts, distributed in 12 genera, have been reported in 8 Latin American countries, with Trichosporon asahii (49...

Trichosporon asahii is an invasive pathogenic yeast that infects immunocompromised hosts. Several virulence factors contribute to the fungal infection; however, the factors that contribute to the occurrence of T. asahii infections remain unclear. Since adhesins are typical virulence factors reported for pathogenic fungi, we looked for host proteins that interact with the T. asahii cell surface. T. asahii and Candida albicans were used for screening using a pull-down assay with fetal bovine serum. Serum albumin and elongation factor 2 were identified as the yeast-binding serum proteins...

Trichosporon asahii is an opportunistic pathogen that can cause severe or even fatal infections in patients with low immune function. sPLA2 plays different roles in different fungi and is also related to fungal drug resistance. However, the mechanism underlying its drug resistance to azoles has not yet been reported in T. asahii . Therefore, we investigated the drug resistance of T. asahii PLA2 ( TaPLA2 ) by constructing overexpressing mutant strains (TaPLA2OE ). TaPLA2OE was generated by homologous recombination of the recombinant vector pEGFP-N1-TaPLA2, induced by the CMV promoter, with Agrobacterium tumefaciens ...

Yeast fungi of the genus Trichosporon spp. can colonize the gastrointestinal tract in humans. In recent decades, the pathogenic role of Trichosporon asahii has been increasingly acknowledged especially in the setting of neutropenic patients with hematological malignancies. However, non-neutropenic patients who are immunosuppressed for other reasons are also at risk of developing invasive forms of this mycosis. We present the case of a 62-year-old male, with a history of ulcerative colitis under immunosuppressive treatment and previous exposure to antibiotics for various bacterial infections, who was admitted to the emergency department with a mycotic aneurysm of the abdominal aorta and left common iliac secondary to T...

Trichosporon asahii is an emerging opportunistic pathogen that causes potentially fatal disseminated trichosporonosis. The global prevalence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses an increasing fungal infection burden caused by T. asahii. Allicin is the main biologically active component with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity in garlic. In this study, we performed an in-depth analysis of the antifungal characteristics of allicin against T. asahii based on physiological, cytological, and transcriptomic assessments...

Trichosporon spp. are emerging opportunistic fungi associated with invasive infections, especially in patients with haematological malignancies. The present study investigated the in vitro inhibition of efflux pumps by promethazine (PMZ) as a strategy to control T. asahii and T. inkin . Planktonic cells were evaluated for antifungal susceptibility to PMZ, as well as inhibition of efflux. The effect of PMZ was also studied in Trichosporon biofilms. PMZ inhibited T. asahii and T. inkin planktonic cells at concentrations ranging from 32 to 256 μg  ml-1 ...

Fungal dimorphism involves two morphologies: a unicellular yeast cell and a multicellular hyphal form. Invasion of hyphae into human cells causes severe opportunistic infections. The transition between yeast and hyphal forms is associated with the virulence of fungi; however, the mechanism is poorly understood. Therefore, we aimed to identify factors that induce hyphal growth of Trichosporon asahii, a dimorphic basidiomycete that causes trichosporonosis. T. asahii showed poor growth and formed small cells containing large lipid droplets and fragmented mitochondria when cultivated for 16 h in a nutrient-deficient liquid medium...

INTRODUCTION: Non-Candida yeasts, although rare, are increasingly encountered and recognized as a growing threat. METHODS: Cases of bloodstream infections (BSIs) due to non-Candida yeasts (NCYs) during the last four years (2018-2021) are presented. RESULTS: During the study period, 16 cases caused by non-Candida yeasts out of 400 cases of yeast BSIs were recorded, corresponding to an incidence of 4%. Yeasts that were isolated included Cryptococcus spp (4 isolates-25%), Rhodotorula mucilaginosa (2 isolates-12...

Apiotrichum is a diverse anamorphic basidiomycetous yeast genus, and its mitogenome characterization has not been revealed. In this study, we assembled two Apiotrichum mitogenomes and compared them with mitogenomes from Agaricomycotina, Pucciniomycotina and Ustilaginomycotina. The mitogenomes of Apiotrichum gracile and A. gamsii comprised circular DNA molecules, with sizes of 34,648 bp and 38,096 bp, respectively. Intronic regions were found contributed the most to the size expansion of A. gamsii mitogenome...

Trichosporon asahii is an opportunistic fungus that forms septate hyphae and pseudohyphae, resembling Candida albicans , and causes fungemia in susceptible individuals. Risk factors for T. asahii infection include immunosuppression, IV catheters, and malignancy. In the present case, a 67-year-old male with a history of renal transplant on immunosuppressive therapy was hospitalized for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia. Despite treatment with steroids and broad initial antibiotic coverage with cefepime, doxycycline, and vancomycin, the patient underwent continual respiratory decline...

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the in vitro activity of isavuconazole on 154 clinical and reference strains of Trichosporon asahii, Trichosporon asteroides, Trichosporon coremiiforme, Trichosporon faecale and Trichosporon inkin by using the EUCAST broth microdilution method (BMD) and Liofilchem MIC Test Strips (MTS). METHODS: Antifungal susceptibility testing for isavuconazole, fluconazole, voriconazole and posaconazole was assessed by EUCAST E.DEF 7.3.2. MIC values of isavuconazole obtained by BMD after 48 h of incubation were compared with MTS MICs after 24 and 48 h of incubation...

This is the first reported case of fatal opportunistic Trichosporon asahii pneumonia in the setting of severe COVID-19 pneumonia. The patient had ventilator-requiring respiratory failure secondary to COVID-19 infection. The patient received intravenous broad-spectrum antibiotics, tocilizumab, and corticosteroids with subsequent development of cavitary infiltrates. Bronchoalveolar lavage grew T. asahii . We describe a rare complication of COVID-19 infection and describe the microbial diagnosis, possible mechanism of infection, and optimal treatment...

BACKGROUND: Trichosporon asahii is an opportunistic pathogenic yeast-like fungus. Phospholipase B1 (PLB1) is an important virulence factor of pathogenic fungi such as Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans, and there are few studies on the role of PLB1 in the pathogenicity of T. asahii. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the role of PLB1 in the pathogenicity of T. asahii. METHODS: A strain with low secretion of PLB1 (4848) was screened, a PLB1 overexpression strain (PLB1OX ) was constructed, and the differences in histopathology, fungal load of organ, survival time of mice, the levels of IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, and GM-GSF in the serum and organs caused by the two strains were compared...

Invasive fungal infections (IFIs) represent a severe complication of COVID-19, yet they are under-estimated. We conducted a retrospective analysis including all the COVID-19 patients admitted to the Infectious Diseases Unit of the Federico II University Hospital of Naples until the 1 July 2021. Among 409 patients, we reported seven cases of IFIs by Candida spp., seven of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia, three of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis, and one of Trichosporon asahii. None of the cases presented underlying predisposing conditions, excluding one oncohematological patient treated with rituximab...

Reports of orthopedic fungal infections caused by Trichosporon species are extremely scarce, thus we aimed to describe a case series and review the cases published in the literature. Patients were retrospectively included if a previous culture of bone, joint, or soft tissues had resulted positive for Trichosporon species along with a clinical diagnosis of an orthopedic infection. Eight patients were included with diverse orthopedic conditions, most of them cases of osteomyelitis. The main isolated species was Trichosporon asahii...

BACKGROUND: The Trichosporonaceae family comprises a large number of basidiomycetes widely distributed in nature. Some of its members, especially Trichosporon asahii, have the ability to cause human infections. This ability is related to a series of virulence factors, which include lytic enzymes production, biofilm formation, resistance to oxidising agents, melanin and glucuronoxylomannan in the cell wall, metabolic plasticity and phenotypic switching. The last two are poorly addressed within human pathogenic Trichosporonaceae...

Infections by Trichosporon spp. are increasing worldwide and its treatment remains a challenge. Colonization of medical devices has been considered as a predisposing factor for trichosporonosis, which is related to fungal biofilm production. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the ability of six hospital T. asahii isolates to form biofilm on abiotic surface, as well as to investigate the impact of three classic antifungals on both planktonic and biofilm forms. The fungal identification was based on macro and micromorphological characteristics, biochemical tests and confirmation by mass spectrometry assisted by the flight time desorption/ionization matrix (MALDI-TOF MS)...

Chronic diarrhea is associated with enteric dysbiosis and provokes the overuse of antibiotics. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a promising therapy, but it shows discrepant clinical efficacy. Bacterial colonization in recipients has been studied, although little is known about the role of gut fungi and Archaea after FMT. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of human-derived FMT on spontaneous chronic diarrhea cynomolgus monkeys and revealed the effector mechanisms. We demonstrated that FMT can mitigate the appearance of diarrheal symptoms and inhibit the increase in interleukin-6, interleukin-8, interleukin-1β, and interferon-γ and the decrease in interleukin-10 in serum...