Primeiro isolamento ambiental de Cryptococcus gattii no Estado do Espírito Santo

Abstract

Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical 41(5):449-453, set-out, 2008 ARTIGO/ARTICLEO fungo basidiomiceto Cryptococcus apresenta duas espécies consideradas patogênicas para seres humanos e animais 15 30 , Cryptococcus gattii e Cryptococcus neoformans, agentes etiológicos da criptococose, micose que afeta tanto indivíduos saudáveis 25 , como imunocomprometidos 6 25 , especialmente pacientes com AIDS 4 25 . A infecção é adquirida através da inalação de propágulos do fungo: leveduras desidratadas ou basidiósporos 11 20 e após a inalação pode haver disseminação hematogênica 25 para tecido cutâneo, órgãos internos e/ou sistema nervoso central, onde se observa a forma clínica mais comum da micose, a meningoencefalite 25 . ABSTRACTThe presence of Cryptococcus gattii was investigated in different regions of the State of Espírito Santo. The largest number (73) of samples was collected from trees located in public places in Vitória; 47 came from preserved areas or areas with only minor human impact, surrounding this city, at altitudes from 0 to 900m above sea level; 48 came from trees native of the northern and southern regions of the state. The samples were collected from tree hollows and trunks by of swabs and yielded two isolates (1.2%) of Cryptococcus neoformans, two (1.2%) of Cryptococcus gattii and one (0.6%) of Cryptococcus laurentii. The species Cryptococcus gattii was found only in native trees from the northern region, in areas that still have remains of the Atlantic Forest, while none of the samples from any of the 22 tree species located in urban areas was able to show the presence of Cryptococcus gattii. These results show a possible relationship between the presence of Atlantic Forest and occurrences of Cryptococcus gattii. They confirm that the environment is a source of infection with this fungus.

Cryptococcus spp isolated from dust microhabitat in Brazilian libraries

“…The habitat of yeasts of the genus Cryptococcus , especially C. neoformans , are found in the environment, principally in soil made up of decomposing plant material and bird and bat droppings found in both urban and rural areas in Brazil [1,9,10,20,22,28]. However, other studies have shed more light on the ecology of the cryptococcosis agent in Brazil, demonstrating that the yeast is associated not only with pigeons or Eucalyptus spp trees, but also with other tree species, as reported by Lazéra et al [16-19] (and fellow authors), Fortes et al [29] and Baltazar and Ribeiro [30]. …”

“…Nowadays, this species is being identified on different trees and in different geographical regions of Brazil, and has already been isolated on native and introduced plant specimens, such as false sicklepod ( Senna multijuga ), stinking toe ( Cassia grandis ), Chinese banyan ( Ficus microcarpa ), Cabori ( Miroxilum peruiferum) , Sibipiruna ( Caesalpinia peltophoroides ), and Oiti ( Moquilea tomentosa) , revealing other natural habitats for this species [16,17,19,28,30,47,48]. While researching trees in the Brazilian Amazon, Fortes et al [29] reinforced evidence that C. gattii is not associated with one species of tree in particular, but rather to a specific habitat niche formed by the natural decomposition of wood.…”

Cryptococcus gattii in North American Pacific Northwest: Whole-Population Genome Analysis Provides Insights into Species Evolution and Dispersal

“…C. gattii has been closely associated with a number of trees, notably Eucalyptus species, which were thought to be the dominant environmental source allowing for transportation of C. gattii out of Australia where it is endemic to locales, such as California, Greece, and elsewhere (5, 6). It has since been shown to be endemic in South America where it is found in close association with a large number of tropical trees (2, 7–9). C. gattii is currently classified into four distinct populations, referred to previously as “major molecular types”: VGI (AFLP4), VGII (AFLP6), VGIII (AFLP5), and VGIV (AFLP7) (10), based on multilocus sequence typing (MLST), amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), and other subgenomic genotyping methodologies.…”

Cryptococcus spp. em excretas de Columba livia (pombos domésticos) provenientes de um hospital universitário no Sul do Brasil

“…Por outro lado, C. gattii ocorre em regiões tropicais e subtropicais, e tem como habitat natural os eucaliptos e material vegetal em decomposição. No Brasil, já foram isolados inclusive de árvores nativas, como as árvores da região de Floresta Atlântica do estado de Espírito Santo (Ellis;Pfeiffer, 1990;Baltazar et al, 2008).…”