scholarly journals Drug-Resistant Aspergillus flavus Is Highly Prevalent in the Environment of Vietnam: A New Challenge for the Management of Aspergillosis?

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 296
Author(s):  
Tra My N. Duong ◽  
Phuong Tuyen Nguyen ◽  
Thanh Van Le ◽  
Huong Lan P. Nguyen ◽  
Bich Ngoc T. Nguyen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Risk ◽  
Aspergillus Flavus ◽  
Environmental Sampling ◽  
Drug Resistant ◽  
Clinical Correlation ◽  
Pulmonary Aspergillosis ◽  
Southern Vietnam ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis ◽  
Beta Tubulin Gene

The burden of aspergillosis, especially Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis, is increasingly recognized, and the increasing presence of azole-resistant environmental Aspergillus fumigatus has been highlighted as a health risk. However, a sizable minority of aspergillosis is caused by Aspergillus flavus, which is assumed to be sensitive to azoles but is infrequently included in surveillance. We conducted environmental sampling at 150 locations in a rural province of southern Vietnam. A. flavus isolates were identified morphologically, their identity was confirmed by sequencing of the beta-tubulin gene, and then they were tested for susceptibility to azoles and amphotericin B according to EUCAST methodologies. We found that over 85% of A. flavus isolates were resistant to at least one azole, and half of them were resistant to itraconazole. This unexpectedly high prevalence of resistance demands further investigation to determine whether it is linked to agricultural azole use, as has been described for A. fumigatus. Clinical correlation is required, so that guidelines can be adjusted to take this information into account.

scholarly journals Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus flavus-Specific IgG Cut-Offs for the Diagnosis of Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis in Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 249
Author(s):  
Kauser Jabeen ◽  
Joveria Farooqi ◽  
Nousheen Iqbal ◽  
Khalid Wahab ◽  
Muhammad Irfan
Keyword(s):  
Aspergillus Fumigatus ◽  
Sensitivity And Specificity ◽  
Aspergillus Flavus ◽  
Diagnostic Algorithm ◽  
Pulmonary Aspergillosis ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Ethical Approval ◽  
Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis ◽  
Specific Igg ◽  
First Time

Despite a high burden of chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) in Pakistan, Aspergillus-specific IgG testing is currently not available. Establishing cut-offs for Aspergillus-specific IgG for CPA diagnosis is crucial due to geographical variation. In settings such as Pakistan, where non-Aspergillus fumigatus (mainly A. flavus) Aspergillus species account for the majority of CPA cases, there is a need to explore additional benefit of Aspergillus flavus-specific IgG detection along with A. fumigatus-specific IgG detection. This study was conducted at the Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan after ethical approval. Serum for IgG detection were collected after informed consent from healthy controls (n = 21), diseased controls (patients with lung diseases, n = 18), and CPA patients (n = 21). A. fumigatus and A. flavus IgG were detected using Siemens immulite assay. The sensitivity and specificity of A. fumigatus-specific IgG were 80.95% and 82.05%, respectively at a cut-off of 20 mg/L. The sensitivity and specificity of A. flavus-specific IgG were 80.95% and 79.49% at a cut-off of 30 mg/L. We report, for the first time, performance of A. flavus-specific IgG for CPA diagnosis. Although there was no statistically significant difference between the performance of both antigens, it seems contextually relevant to include A. flavus IgG in the CPA diagnostic algorithm in regions with higher non-A. fumigatus CPA infections.

Computational Overview of Mycobacterial Thymidine Monophosphate Kinase

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (15) ◽  
pp. 1676-1681
Author(s):  
Sana Gul ◽  
Ruqaiya Khalil ◽  
Zaheer Ul-Haq ◽  
Mohammad S. Mubarak
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Docking ◽  
Structure Elucidation ◽  
Tuberculosis Patient ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Morbidity Rate ◽  
Drug Resistant ◽  
Tuberculosis Control ◽  
Bacterial Enzyme ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
Thymidine Monophosphate

: Tuberculosis (TB) ranks among the diseases with the highest morbidity rate with significantly high prevalence in developing countries. Globally, tuberculosis poses the most substantial burden of mortality. Further, a partially treated tuberculosis patient is worse than untreated; they may lead to standing out as a critical obstacle to global tuberculosis control. The emergence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extremely drug-resistant (XDR) strains, and co-infection of HIV further worsen the situation. The present review article discusses validated targets of the bacterial enzyme thymidine monophosphate kinase (TMPK). TMPKMTB enzyme belongs to the nucleoside monophosphate kinases (NMPKs) family. It is involved in phosphorylation of TMP to TDP, and TDP is phosphorylated to TTP. This review highlights structure elucidation of TMP enzymes and their inhibitors study on TMP scaffold, and it also discusses different techniques; including molecular docking, virtual screening, 3DPharmacophore, QSAR for finding anti-tubercular agents.

scholarly journals Misdiagnosis of chronic pulmonary aspergillosis as pulmonary tuberculosis at a tertiary care center in Uganda: a case series

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Kwizera ◽  
Andrew Katende ◽  
Felix Bongomin ◽  
Lydia Nakiyingi ◽  
Bruce J. Kirenga
Keyword(s):  
Pulmonary Tuberculosis ◽  
Treatment Outcomes ◽  
Diagnostic Criteria ◽  
Tertiary Care ◽  
Chest Imaging ◽  
Resource Limited Settings ◽  
Pulmonary Aspergillosis ◽  
Resource Limited ◽  
Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis ◽  
Hiv Negative

Abstract Background Diagnosis of chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) is based on a combination of clinical symptomatology, compatible chest imaging findings, evidence of Aspergillus infection and exclusion of alternative diagnosis, all occurring for more than 3 months. Recently, a rapid, highly sensitive and specific point-of-care lateral flow device (LFD) has been introduced for the detection of Aspergillus-specific immunoglobulin (Ig)G, especially in resource-limited settings where CPA is underdiagnosed and often misdiagnosed as smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). Therefore, in our setting, where tuberculosis (TB) is endemic, exclusion of PTB is an important first step to the diagnosis of CPA. We used the recently published CPA diagnostic criteria for resource-limited settings to identify patients with CPA in our center. Case presentation Three Ugandan women (45/human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) negative, 53/HIV infected and 18/HIV negative), with a longstanding history of cough, chest pain, weight loss and constitutional symptoms, were clinically and radiologically diagnosed with PTB and empirically treated with an anti-tuberculous regimen despite negative microbiological tests. Repeat sputum Mycobacteria GeneXpert assays were negative for all three patients. On further evaluation, all three patients met the CPA diagnostic criteria with demonstrable thick-walled cavities and fungal balls (aspergilomas) on chest imaging and positive Aspergillus-specific IgG/IgM antibody tests. After CPA diagnosis, anti-TB drugs were safely discontinued for all patients, and they were initiated on capsules of itraconazole 200 mg twice daily with good treatment outcomes. Conclusions The availability of simple clinical diagnostic criteria for CPA and a LFD have the potential to reduce misdiagnosis of CPA and in turn improve treatment outcomes in resource-limited settings.

scholarly journals Performance of LDBio Aspergillus WB and ICT Antibody Detection in Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 311
Author(s):  
Anna Rozaliyani ◽  
Findra Setianingrum ◽  
Sresta Azahra ◽  
Asriyani Abdullah ◽  
Ayu Eka Fatril ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Receiver Operating Curve ◽  
Antibody Detection ◽  
Pulmonary Aspergillosis ◽  
Comparative Performance ◽  
Tuberculosis Patients ◽  
Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis ◽  
Screening Assays ◽  
Roc Area ◽  
Flow Detection ◽  
Sensitivity Specificity

The detection of Aspergillus antibody has a key role in the diagnosis of chronic pulmonary aspergillosis. Western blot (WB) and immunochromatography (ICT) lateral flow detection of Aspergillus antibody can be used as confirmatory and screening assays but their comparative performance in TB patients is not known. This study investigated the performance of these assays among 88 post-tuberculosis patients with suspected CPA. Sensitivity, specificity, receiver operating curve (ROC), area under-curve (AUC) and the agreement between two assays were evaluated. Both WB and ICT showed good sensitivity (80% and 85%, respectively) for detection of Aspergillus antibodies. Substantial agreement (0.716) between these assays was also obtained. The highest AUC result (0.804) was achieved with the combination of WB and ICT. The global intensity of WB correlated with the severity of symptoms in CPA group (p = 0.001). The combination of WB and ICT may increase specificity in CPA diagnosis.

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