Determining the Pathogenic Potential of Non-sporulating Molds Isolated from Cutaneous Specimens

Abstract

Although non-sporulating molds (NSM) are frequently isolated from patients and have been recognized as agents of pulmonary disease, their clinical significance in cutaneous specimens is relatively unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to identify NSM and to determine the keratinolytic activity of isolates from cutaneous sites. NSM isolates from clinical specimens such as skin, nail, and body fluids were identified based on their ribosomal DNA sequences. Of 17 NSM isolates (7 Ascomycota, 10 Basidiomycota), eleven were identified to species level while five were identified to the genus level. These include Schizophyllum commune, a known human pathogen, Phoma multirostrata, a plant pathogen, and Perenniporia tephropora, a saprophyte. To determine fungal pathogenicity, keratinolytic activity, a major virulence factor, was evaluated ex vivo using human nail samples by measuring dye release from keratin azure, for NSM along with pathogens (Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Trichophyton rubrum, Microsporum canis and Fusarium spp.) and nonpathogenic (endophyte) fungi for comparison. This study showed that pathogenic fungi had the highest keratinolytic activity (7.13 ± 0.552 keratinase units) while the nonpathogenic endophytes had the lowest activity (2.37 ± 0.262 keratinase units). Keratinolytic activity of two Ascomycota NSM (Guignardia mangiferae and Hypoxylon sp.) and one Basidiomycota NSM (Fomitopsis cf. meliae) was equivalent to that of pathogenic fungi, while Xylaria feejeensis showed significantly higher activity (p < 0.05) than nonpathogenic endophytes. These results indicate that the pathogenic ability of NSM is species dependent; clinical isolates, especially more frequently isolated species, may be involved in disease etiology.

Fungal diversity in environments of repository of the national archive of the Republic of Cuba from the 80s to 2022

“…It is noteworthy that it has been discovered that mycelia of these types may be non-sporulating forms of pathogenic fungi, so they may be potential emerging pathogens. 122…”

Mold detection and environmentally friendly prevention technology for animal specimens

“…This not only poses a threat to the long-term preservation of specimens, but also endangers the health of herbarium staff. Julia Hullab studied dozens of diseases such as allergic rhinitis, allergic asthma and urticaria caused by mold on human body [3][4][5]. It can be seen that mold hazards human from several aspects.…”

Unlocking proteomic and ecological heterogeneity between Schizophyllum commune and Trametes versicolor as early sapwood colonizers on wood

“…This xerotolerant fungus had been identified from 291 botanical species (belong to 162 genera) as host (Cooke 1961) which meanwhile has reached up to 630 species (belong to 278 genera and 88 families) (Khonsuntia et al unpublished). This cosmopolitan fungus has been recovered from a repertoire of substrates and habitats (Takemoto et al 2010), like on dead wood (Cooke 1961;French and Keirle 1969;Schmidt and Liese 1980;Ginns 1986;Motiejūnaitė et al 2014;Lakkireddy et al 2017;Suliaman et al 2017), infecting living plants (Essig 1922;Poole 1929;Ledeboer 1946;Erwin et al 2008;Takemoto et al 2010;GLTMS 2015;Stravinskienė et al 2015;Lakkireddy et al 2017), as endophyte (Agusta et al 2006;You et al 2012;Jin et al 2013;Qadri et al 2013;Bourdel et al 2016), spores in air (Shams-Ghahfarokhi et al 2014;Kim et al 2015;2016), in marine environment (You et al 2012;Panno et al 2013;Supaphon et al 2014;Maduranga et al 2018;Xu et al 2018), on glaciers sediments (Gonçalves et al 2015), causing diseases in humans (Kligman 1950;Kamei et al 1999;Chowdhary et al 2013a;Jeyaprakasam et al 2016;Siqueira et al 2016;Oguma et al 2018;…”