Detection of Candida species in pregnant Chinese women with a molecular beacon method

Abstract

PurposeCandida pathogens are commonly found in women and can cause vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC), whose infection rate is further increased during pregnancy. We aimed to study the Candida prevalence and strain distribution in pregnant Chinese women with a molecular beacon assay.MethodologyFrom March 2016 to February 2017, a total of 993 pregnant women attending routine antenatal visits at the Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital were enrolled. For Candida detection and identification, a unique molecular beacon assay was presented and compared with a traditional phenotypic method. Antifungal susceptibility was tested with the following agents: 5-flucytosine, amphotericin B, fluconazole, itraconazole and voriconazole.ResultsThe prevalence of Candida was found to be 21.8 % when using the molecular method and 15.0 % when using the phenotypic method. The distribution of the Candida spp. was listed in order of decreasing prevalence: Candida albicans (79.8 %), Candida glabrata (13.5 %), Candida parapsilosis (3.7 %), Candida krusei (2.2 %) and Candida tropicalis (1.1 %). We found that 90.7 % of the Candida detection results were consistent between the molecular and the phenotypic methods. In the cases where the sequencing analyses for the Candida isolates resulted in inconsistent identification, the molecular method showed higher sensitivity than the phenotypic method (96.0 vs 64.6 %). C. albicans, C. glabrata and C. parapsilosis were essentially susceptible to all five antifungal agents tested, whereas C. tropicalis and C. krusei were susceptible to voriconazole and amphotericin B.ConclusionBy exhibiting good sensitivity and specificity, the molecular assay may offer a fast and accurate Candida screening platform for pregnant women.

Investigating the Frequency of Candida glabrata in Diabetic Women of Tehran with Recurrent and Non-recurrent Vulvovaginal Candidiasis Using PCR-RFLP Assay

“…However, it was time-consuming (48-72 h) and lacked the reliable sensitivity to discriminate the species by the color of colonies, especially in mixed infection. For example, the differentiation of some C. albicans colonies from dark green colonies of C. dubliniensis, or pale-dark pink/purple C. glabrata colonies from those of species with a similar color were ambiguous, which was in agreement with other studies reporting the same challenge [11,12,38,39].…”

Prevalence and Antifungal Susceptibility of Candida albicans Causing Vaginal discharge Among Pregnant Women in Lebanon

“…Figure 1 summarizes the distribution of Candida species isolated from vaginal swabs from population-based studies conducted in different countries including our study over the last decade. China, Brazil, Tunis, Kuwait, India, Greece and Turkey have reported that C.albicans remains the most commonly isolated yeast (60%-80%) in women diagnosed with VVC [21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. On the other hand, an increasing trend in the occurrence of NCAC (58%-60%) over time has also been observed in Pakistan and Burkina Faso [28,29].…”

Identification of Candida Species from Clinical Samples in a Honduran Tertiary Hospital

“…Kaur et al analyzed Candida strains isolated from six types of clinical samples, and also reported an important predominance of C. albicans [29]. Other studies have analyzed a single type of clinical sample, such as blood [30][31][32][33], urine [21,24], vulvovaginal secretion [34], bronchoalveolar fluid [35], and gastroesophageal tract [36]; however, in all of them the predominant species was C. albicans. Although there are many epidemiological studies that show a trend towards an increase in infections caused by non-albicans Candida species [37], it seems that the C. albicans complex remains the most frequent etiological agent among fungal human infections when considered individually.…”