Invasive infections due toClavispora lusitaniae

Abstract

Three cases of Clavispora lusitaniae invasive fungal infections are reported. All three infections appeared in cancer patients presented with fungaemia, one additionally with meningitis. Two of them were breakthrough -- they developed during therapy with conventional amphotericin B with a dose of 0.5 mg kg(-1) day(-1) . All three were cured: two with intravenous fluconazol and one with an increasing dose (1 mg kg(-1) day(-1)) of amphotericin B. In one of two breakthrough cases the sensitivity of the strain to antifungals was tested against antifungal agents and showed in vitro resistance to amphotericin B (MIC 2 eta g ml(-1)).

Dimorphic cycle in Candida citri sp. nov., a novel yeast species isolated from rotting fruit in Borneo

“…Apart from propagating by budding, most of them also form pseudohyphae and some of them can even produce true hyphae (e.g. Clavispora lusitaniae, the third member of the clade, occurs in a broad array of substrates of plant and animal origin and was found to be an opportunistic human pathogen that forms pseudohyphae (for a review, see Hazen, 1995) capable of invasive infection (Krcmery et al, 1999). Candida flosculorum, the closest relative of C. citri on the D1/D2 trees (Fig.…”

“…Candida fructus, one of the species that shared a branch with C. citri in the 18S trees, was isolated from fruits and formed only budding yeast cells (Nakase, 1971). Clavispora lusitaniae, the third member of the clade, occurs in a broad array of substrates of plant and animal origin and was found to be an opportunistic human pathogen that forms pseudohyphae (for a review, see Hazen, 1995) capable of invasive infection (Krcmery et al, 1999). The less closely related C. blattae and C. akabanensis originally isolated from insect gut and frass can also develop long septate hyphae on which blastoconidia are formed (Nguyen et al, 2007).…”

Usefulness of McRAPD for typing and importance of biofilm production in a case of nosocomial ventriculoperitoneal shunt infection caused by Candida lusitaniae

“…Sarma et al (1993) presented fatal meningitis in a previously healthy adult male. Besides, we found three articles by Krcmery's group from Bratislava, Slovakia, describing, among others, single cases of VPS infection in children caused by C. lusitaniae (Huttova et al 1998;Krcmery et al 1999;Kovacicova et al 2001). The main characteristics of all three cases together with ours are given for comparison in Table 3.…”

“…Firstly, all cases except ours were successfully cured. Secondly, when using the Etest with RPMI 1640 for antifungal susceptibility testing, in vitro resistance to amphotericin B was detected in two cases (Krcmery et al 1999;Kovacicova et al 2001), while all our isolates had markedly lower MICs. Also the length of fluconazole therapy was slightly different.…”

Fungal Meningitis

“…[28][29][30] Despite its protected nature, the subarachnoid space can even be invaded under unique circumstances by common environmental fungi. For example, in humans, fungal meningitis has been caused by Alternaria, 31 Rhodotorula, [32][33][34][35] Acremonium, 36 Clavispora, 37 Dreschlera, 38 Sependonium, 39 Malessezia, 40 Scedosporium, 41 Schizophyllum, 40,42 Blastoschizomyces, 43 Paecilomyces, 44 Aureobasidium, 33,45 Pneumocystis, 46,47 and Ustilago. 48 The most common fungi and the spectrum of CNS infections caused by them are listed in Table 1.…”