Fatal disseminated infection due to Sarocladium kiliense in a diabetic patient with COVID‐19

Abstract

Sarocladium kiliense, formerly known as Acremonium kiliense, 1 is an omnipresent soil saprophytic fungus generally found in the environment such as cereal fields and the soils of grass lands, and sporadically infecting humans and other mammals. [2][3][4] The species of Sarocladium are morphologically very homologous and in the most of the clinical cases the causative agent is reported only as a Sarocladium/Acremonium sp., which dramatically decreases the value of the investigations. 5 This is the principal cause that the actual incidence of the various species of Sarocladium in the clinical setting is unknown. Molecular identification of Sarocladium using modern DNAbased techniques is essential for a critical assessment of the reported cases. This fungus can cause opportunistic infections, such as mycetoma, onychomycosis, fungal keratitis, in immunocompetent individuals, and osteomyelitis, pneumonia, arthritis, peritonitis, endocarditis, meningitis, and sepsis in immunocompromised patients. 6,7 The main risk factors are considered as the use of catheters and prosthesis, anatomic disorders, immunosuppressive therapy, autoimmune diseases, diabetes mellitus, and malignancies. 2,8 Here, we present a systemic case of S. kiliense in a diabetic patient infected to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) from Isfahan, Iran. | CASE PRESENTATIONA 74-year-old woman with 25 years history of diabetes mellitus was referred to a private traditional medicine center

Purpureocillium lilacinum an emergent pathogen: antifungal susceptibility of environmental and clinical strains

“…In summary, we highlight the importance of knowing the different susceptibility profiles of P. lilacinum isolates, whether they are considered as pathogenic or not in order to make all those handling beneficial isolates aware of contamination risks and possible difficulty in choosing the best treatment and, consequently, its correlation with clinical outcomes (Badali and Wiederhold, 2019). The emergence of uncommon human and animal opportunistic fungi, such P. lilacinum, Aspergillus fumigatus, Sarocladium kiliensis, among others, especially during COVID-19, highlight the need for antifungal susceptibility testing of isolates since empirical therapy with different treatment schedules failed in great number of patients (Salehi et al 2020;Pem an et al 2020;Ranjbar-Mobarake et al 2021;Sprute et al 2021).…”

“…Classically, saprobic fungi have emerged as new pathogens, as they are gradually adapting to the increase in global temperature and consequently developing thermotolerance (De Crecy et al 2009;Garcia-Solache and Casadevall 2010). In addition to climate changes, the SARS-COV 2 virus pandemic represents a challenge for public health as more and more harmless fungal species has overcome the immune barriers and caused serious damage to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients/survivors (Kuchi Bhotla et al 2021;Ranjbar-Mobarake et al 2021). It is important to address the emergence of fungal infections in the context of COVID-19, since in hyalohyphomycosis caused by P. lilacinum, two issues must be observed: the first one, the long-term use of corticosteroids for the treatment of COVID-19 promotes an environment of immunosuppression which Letters in Applied Microbiology 75, 45--50 © 2022 The Society for Applied Microbiology becomes an important predisposing factor for P. lilacinum infection (Pastor and Guarro 2006;Borba and Brito 2016).…”

“…2021; Ranjbar‐Mobarake et al . 2021). It is important to address the emergence of fungal infections in the context of COVID‐19, since in hyalohyphomycosis caused by P. lilacinum , two issues must be observed: the first one, the long‐term use of corticosteroids for the treatment of COVID‐19 promotes an environment of immunosuppression which becomes an important predisposing factor for P. lilacinum infection (Pastor and Guarro 2006; Borba and Brito 2016).…”

COVID-19-associated fungal infections in Iran: A systematic review

“…kiliense , and D . foeniculina [ 16 , 19 , 31 ]. This highlights the importance of considering emerging and rare fungi as a differential diagnosis of COVID-19 complications.…”

Common but Nonpersistent Acquisitions of Plant Viruses by Plant-Associated Fungi

“…Genus Sarocladium is comprised of a highly diverse group of fungi including plant pathogens, endophytes, saprobes, mycoparasites, and human opportunistic pathogens [65,66]. S. kiliense is mainly known as a human opportunistic pathogen [67][68][69][70], but it is also reported to be a plant pathogenic and endophytic fungus in some plant species [71][72][73][74][75]. A BLASTn search querying the ITS of S. kiliense strains isolated in this study against the nucleotide collection in GenBank yielded the majority of hits representing endophytes isolated from plant samples [76] (see Supplementary File S4).…”