Partial chemical characterization of antigenic preparations of chromoblastomycosis agents. (1/59)

Antigenic preparations (saline, methylic, metabolic and exoantigens) of four agents of chromoblastomycosis, Fonsecaea pedrosoi, Phialophora verrucosa, Cladophialophora (Cladosporium) carrionii and Rhinocladiella aquaspersa were obtained. Partial chemical characterization of these antigenic preparations was obtained by determination of the levels of total lipids, protein, and carbohydrates, and identification of the main sterols and carbohydrates. Methylic antigens presented the highest lipid contents, whereas metabolic antigens showed the highest carbohydrate content. Total lipid, protein, and carbohydrate levels were in the range of 2.33 to 2.00 mg/ml, 0.04 to 0.02 mg/ml and 0.10 to 0.02 mg/ml, respectively, in the methylic antigens and in the range of 0. 53 to 0.18 mg/ml, 0.44 to 0.26 mg/ml, and 1.82 to 1.02 mg/ml, respectively, in saline antigens. Total lipid, protein, and carbohydrate contents were in the range of 0.55 to 0.20 mg/ml, 0.69 to 0.57 mg/ml and 10.73 to 5.93 mg/ml, respectively, in the metabolic antigens, and in the range of 0.55 to 0.15 mg/ml, 0.62 to 0.20 mg/ml and 3.55 to 0.42 mg/ml, respectively, in the exoantigens. Phospholipids were not detected in the preparations. Saline and metabolic antigens and exoantigens presented hexose and the methylic antigen revealed additional pentose units in their composition. The UV light absorption spectra of the sterols revealed squalene and an ergosterol fraction in the antigens. The characterization of these antigenic preparations may be useful for serological evaluation of patients of chromoblastomycosis.  (+info)

Humoral immune response in chromoblastomycosis during and after therapy. (2/59)

A longitudinal study was carried out in Madagascar, the most important focus of chromoblastomycosis (P. Esterre, A. Andriantsimahavandy, E. Ramarcel, and J. L. Pecarrere, Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 55:45-47, 1996), to investigate natural immunity to this disease. Sequential blood samples were obtained before, during, and at the end of a successful therapeutic trial with terbinafine, a new antifungal drug. Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunoblot methods, detailed analyses of antibody concentration and antigen mapping were conducted for 136 serum samples and tentatively correlated to epidemiological and pathobiological data. Two different cytoplasmic antigens, corresponding to the two fungal species involved (Fonsecaea pedrosoi and Cladophialophora carrionii), were used to analyze the distribution of different classes of immunoglobulins. This was done with respect to the origin of the isolates, clinical and pathobiological. Although strong individual variations were noticed, some major antigens (one of 18.5 kDa specific for F. pedrosoi and two of 23.5 and 33 kDa, respectively, specific for C. carrionii) corresponded to high antibody prevalence and concentration. As some antigenic components were also detected by immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgA antibodies, the role that these specific antibodies could play in the immune response is discussed.  (+info)

Dematiaceous fungal keratitis. Clinical isolates and management. (3/59)

Clinical and laboratory features of 16 cases of keratitis that were caused by dematiaceous pigmented fungi are reported. Management, including the treatment of nine cases with Natamycin (Pimaricin), resulted in corneal healing in 14 cases, and therapeutic surgery in two cases.  (+info)

A case of chromomycosis treated by a combination of cryotherapy, shaving, oral 5-fluorocytosine, and oral amphotericin B. (4/59)

A case of chromomycosis from Comoro Islands was first treated without success with high doses of oral amphotericin B (3 g per day). Treatment with itraconazole (400 mg per day) was also unsuccessful. Then, in vitro tests were done to study the susceptibility of this Fonsecaea pedrosoi strain to antifungal drugs. It was resistant to itraconazole, sensitive to 5-fluorocytosine, and the combination of 5-fluorocytosine with amphotericin B was synergistic. The patient was then treated with this last combination of drugs, which seemed to be effective. The patient stopped this treatment after six months, and relapse occurred two years later. The best therapeutic strategy in cases of chromomycosis seems to be a combination of two drugs chosen according to the results of prior antifungal susceptibility testing.  (+info)

Cerebral chromoblastomicosis--a rare case report of cerebral abscess and brief review of literature--a case report. (5/59)

A rare case of Cerebral Chromomycosis caused by chromogenic fungus Cladosporium trichoides in a 35 year old male with classical presentation of cerebral abscess is being presented. The case report lays emphasis on the histological diagnosis of chromogenic fungus in the wall of the abscess cavity, surgically removed from a well delineated circumscribed lesion in the frontal lobe of the cerebrum. The causative fungus could be detected even in unstained paraffin sections. The diagnosis could be made only after surgical removal and histopathological examination. The mycological culture could not be made as the material was received in formaldehyde fixative. The unique features of the case is its recurrence free uneventful survival five years after surgical excision. This is probably the fifth reported case of cerebral chromomycosis from India and first of its type from arid zone of Rajasthan.  (+info)

Chromoblastomycosis simulating rhinosporidiosis in a patient from Ceylon. (6/59)

A case of chromoblastomycosis confined to the mucous membrane of one side of the nasal septum is reported. The organism was not cultivated, but its characteristics in histological preparations were typical of those of the organisms in sections of cutaneous lesions known to be caused by Phialophora pedrosoi and related fungi. The diagnosis is considered to have been justified in spite of the great rarity of mucosal involvement in chromoblastomycosis and of the complete absence of lesions in the skin. The patient was a Sinhalese student working in London. He had first noticed the lesion before he left Ceylon, but the symptoms of nasal obstruction and bleeding were not sufficient to make him seek medical advice until two years later. If it is correct to assume that he contracted the infection in Ceylon his case is only the second on record in which there has been reason to suggest that Ceylon has been the geographical source of chromoblastomycosis. The lesion was excised and its site cauterized. There has been no sign of recurrence of the infection during the two years that have passed since the operation.  (+info)

Fonsecaea pedrosoi cerebral phaeohyphomycosis ("chromoblastomycosis"): first human culture-proven case reported in Brazil. (7/59)

Cerebral phaeohyphomycosis ("chromoblastomycosis") is a rare intracranial lesion. We report the first human culture-proven case of brain abscesses due to Fonsecaea pedrosoi in Brazil. The patient, a 28 year-old immunocompetent white male, had ocular manifestations and a hypertensive intracranial syndrome. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain revealed a main tumoral mass involving the right temporo-occipital area and another smaller apparently healed lesion at the left occipital lobe. A cerebral biopsy was performed and the pathological report was cerebral chromoblastomycosis. The main lesion was enucleated surgically and culture of the necrotic and suppurative mass grew a fungus identified as Fonsecaea pedrosoi. The patient had received a knife wound sixteen years prior to his hospitalization and, more recently, manifested a pulmonary granulomatous lesion in the right lung with a single non-pigmented form of a fungus present. It was speculated that the fungus might have gained entrance to the host through the skin lesion, although a primary respiratory lesion was not excluded. The patient was discharged from the hospital still with ocular manifestations and on antimycotic therapy and was followed for eight months without disease recurrence. Few months after he had complications of the previous neuro-surgery and died. A complete autopsy was performed and no residual fungal disease was found.  (+info)

Melanin from Fonsecaea pedrosoi induces production of human antifungal antibodies and enhances the antimicrobial efficacy of phagocytes. (8/59)

Fonsecaea pedrosoi is a fungal pathogen that produces melanin. The functions of melanin and its possible influence in the protective immunological response during infection by F. pedrosoi are not known. In this work, treatment of F. pedrosoi mycelia with proteases and glycosidases followed by a denaturing agent and hot concentrated acid left a black residue. Scanning electron microscopy demonstrated that this processed melanized residue resembled very closely the intact mycelium in shape and size. Melanin particles were also isolated from culture fluids of conidia or sclerotic forms of F. pedrosoi. Secreted melanins were reactive with sera from infected human patients, suggesting that F. pedrosoi synthesizes melanin in vivo. The antibodies against melanin were purified from patients' sera and analyzed by indirect immunofluorescence. They reacted with sclerotic cells from patients' lesions as well as with sclerotic bodies cultivated in vitro, conidia, mycelia, and digested residues. Treatment of F. pedrosoi with purified antibodies against melanin inhibited fungal growth in vitro. The interaction of F. pedrosoi with phagocytes in the presence of melanin resulted in higher levels of fungal internalization and destruction by host cells, which was accompanied by greater degrees of oxidative burst. Taken together, these results indicate that melanin from F. pedrosoi is an immunologically active fungal structure that activates humoral and cellular responses that could help the control of chromoblastomycosis by host defenses.  (+info)

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