Pneumocystis jirovecii in Spanish Patients With Heart Failure

Abstract

Objective: Pneumocystis colonization is frequent in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) producing local and systemic inflammation. Heart failure is also a common comorbidity among patients with COPD. Heart failure is a chronic, frequent, and disabling condition with high morbidity and mortality, but with a modifiable course where endothelial dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension have great importance. Animal models have shown that Pneumocystis infection can cause relevant functionally changes in vascular responses in the lung, promoting the development of pulmonary hypertension. Pneumocystis colonization could be a hidden cause of worsening heart failure through it capacity to induce inflammatory response with subsequent endothelial dysfunction and pulmonary hypertension. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of Pneumocystis jirovecii colonization in heart failure patients and its possible association with reduced or preserved ejection fraction.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out including 36 heart failure patients and 36 control cases. Identification of P. jirovecii colonization was performed by means of molecular techniques in oropharyngeal washing.Results: Pneumocystis-DNA was identified in oropharyngeal washing in 1 (2.7%) of 36 heart failure patients and in 3 (8.3%) of 36 controls.Conclusions: Pneumocystis colonization does not seem to have a role in the pathophysiology of heart failure.

Fast and Accurate Pneumocystis Pneumonia Diagnosis in Human Samples Using a Label-Free Plasmonic Biosensor

“…Detection of P. jirovecii DNA was done using nested-PCR amplification of the Pneumocystis mtLSU rRNA gene, as described elsewhere [27]. Identification of other fungi was performed, amplifying the fungal nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer ITS2 region [28] using a semi-nested protocol using the primers ITS-1(5 -TCCGTAGGTGAACCTGCGG-3 ) and ITS-4 (5 -TCCTCCGCTTATTGATATGC-3 ) in the first PCR round and ITS-3 (5 -GCATCGATGAAGAACGCAGC-3') and ITS-4 in the second PCR round; subsequently, the amplification product was cloned and sequenced.…”