Cryptococcus

Cryptococcus neoformans is a human fungal pathogen that causes lethal infections of the lung and central nervous system in immunocompromised individuals. C. neoformans has a defined bipolar sexual life cycle with a and α mating types. During the sexual cycle, which can occur between cells of opposite mating types (bisexual reproduction) or cells of one mating type (unisexual reproduction), a dimorphic transition from yeast to hyphal growth occurs. Hyphal development and meiosis generate abundant spores that, following inhalation, penetrate deep into the lung to enter the alveoli, germinate, and establish a pulmonary infection growing as budding yeast cells...

OBJECTIVE: The correct identification of fungal organisms is important for the appropriate clinical management of patients. It becomes difficult in necrotic smears when the tissue response is not clearly discernible. It is difficult to distinguish between histoplasma and cryptococcus in severely necrotic cases, where both appear as variably sized clear refractile haloes. METHODS: Four cases of adrenal necrotic histoplasma infection were studied and the morphology was compared with that of non-necrotic histoplasmosis and cases of cryptococcal infection...

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This case reports an immunocompetent 29-year-old woman with suspected pneumonia, suggestive of fungal infection. Immunoblotting analysis reactivity against Histoplasma capsulatum and Paracoccidioides brasiliensis were observed. Nested-PCR in blood employing species-specific primers was positive for H. capsulatum and Cryptococcus neoformans. The evaluation of paucisymptomatic patients with positive results for H. capsulatum and C. neoformans could be relevant for the prevention as well as the possible evaluation of the reactivated quiescent foci...

BACKGROUND: Cryptococcus neoformans is an encapsulated yeast that commonly causes disease in individuals in the setting of immunocompromised states. It is rarely reported in immunocompetent patients in the literature. HIGHLIGHT OF A REPORT: An active duty service member with no significant medical history presented with persistent headache, nausea, vomiting, weight loss, and nocturnal fevers for 2 months. The patient was admitted to the hospital where a lumbar puncture was performed showing an elevated white blood cell count, low glucose, and elevated protein...

Cryptococcosis is an opportunistic infection caused by Cryptococcus neoformans that typically presents in immunocompromised patients, most commonly in those with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. It rarely has been described in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Defects in the host defense mechanisms due to hyperglycemia predispose diabetic patients to opportunistic infections such as cryptococcosis. We present a rare case of disseminated cryptococcosis in a 48-year-old HIV-negative man with DM...

Cryptococcus neoformans is a medically important opportunistic fungal pathogen with a polysaccharide capsule surrounding the yeast-like cells. In hosts with impaired cell-mediated immunity such as AIDS, uncontrolled infection causes life-threatening meningoencephalitis. In immunocompetent individuals, the host immune response usually limits the growth of the fungal pathogen at the primary infected site, where it may persist, without completely eradicated, in a latent state because of its ability to escape from killing by macrophages...

Cryptococcus neoformans is commonly associated with meningoencephalitis in immunocompromised patients and occasionally in apparently healthy individuals. Duration and regimen of antifungal treatment vary depending on the nature of the host and extent of disease and CNS shunts are placed in persistently elevated intracranial pressures. Recurrence of infection after initial treatment is not uncommon in HIV positive patients, Kaya et al. (2012) and Illnait-zaragozí et al. (2010). We describe a 39-year-old immunocompetent female that presented with neurologic deficits and increased intracranial pressure (ICP) due to cryptococcal meningoencephalitis that had a complicated course with drug induced hepatitis and persistently increased ICP that ultimately required shunt placement and presented again with relapse of cryptococcal meningoencephalitis after completion of antifungal treatment...

Eugenia calycina, which is described as "red pitanga or pitanga cherry of cerrado," is widely distributed in the Cerrado area of Brazil. Its leaf and bark extracts are used in folk medicine for many applications. In this study, the compositions of the major polar compounds of the bark and leaf extracts and their fractions were obtained from a liquid-liquid extraction using hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, and water. They were then evaluated using electrospray ionization negative FT-ICR mass spectrometry (ESI(-) FT-ICR MS), which revealed a large number of oxygen-containing compounds, such as flavonoids, terpenes, tanins, steroids, and fat acids...