Long‐term oropharyngeal colonization by C. albicans in children with cystic fibrosis

Abstract

This longitudinal prospective study aimed to determine the prevalence of oropharyngeal colonization by C. albicans in children with cystic fibrosis (CF), and observe the continuity of candidal colonization and the changes in production of virulence factors, susceptibility to antifungal agents and RAPD patterns of the isolates. Thirty-seven children with CF were followed-up for oropharyngeal C. albicans colonization for 18 months. The colonization rate was detected in 54%. All isolates were susceptible to amphotericin B, but those isolated from one patient were resistant to fluconazole. Biofilm production, secretory acid proteinase, phospholipase and esterase activity rates were 30%, 60%, 75% and 80%, respectively. RAPD analysis with the primers OPE-03 and OPE-18 was performed for genotyping. RAPD patterns of the strains isolated from the same patient were related to each other, whereas they were not related with other strains isolated from different patients. Two C. albicans strains isolated from the same patient were found to be unrelated to one another. As a result, long-lasting colonization of the oropharyngeal mucosa of children with CF by endogenous C. albicans isolates having the same RAPD pattern was demonstrated. Colonization prevalance and development of resistance to antifungal agents and the increased production of virulence factors were not correlated.

Posttreatment Antifungal Resistance among Colonizing Candida Isolates in Candidemia Patients: Results from a Systematic Multicenter Study

“…One approximation for this study was to interpret the blood isolates as surrogate markers for baseline colonization and to compare this to subsequent oral colonization. Genotyping revealed a 90% genetic correlation for species acquired from both sites, supporting the general concept that the invasive species was also a colonizing agent, as previously shown (15,(37)(38)(39)(40). In addition, the MIC data for paired blood and oral isolates mirrored those for the overall isolate collection for both C. albicans and C. glabrata.…”

Molecular epidemiology of Candida albicans and Candida glabrata strains isolated from intensive care unit patients in Poland

“…Knowing the source of infection and detection of possible routes of transmission can help with the prevention of clonal spread of pathogenic fungi. RAPD is one of the most frequently used genotyping methods for epidemiological investigations of Candida infections worldwide (Lian et al 2004, Marol & Yücesoy 2008, Muthig et al 2010, Karaman et al 2013). This technique is easy to perform as well as rapid, cost-effective and suitable for the typing of a large number of strains (Noumi et al 2009).…”

“…For this purpose, it is important to perform genotyping analysis that would allow evaluation of the spread of these pathogens. The most commonly used molecular typing methods are restriction endonuclease analysis, microsatellite analysis, multilocus enzyme electrophoresis, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, multilocus sequence typing and random amplified polymorphic DNA polymerase chain reaction (RAPD PCR) (Krawczyk et al 2009, Abbes et al 2010, Karaman et al 2013). The latter method was used in this study to evaluate the level of genetic diversity of C. albicans and C. glabrata strains isolated from ICU patients from the tertiary hospital in Krakow, Poland over a two-year period.…”