High Prevalence of Clinical and Environmental Triazole Resistant Aspergillus fumigatus in Iran: Is It a Challenging Issue?

High Prevalence of Clinical and Environmental Triazole Resistant Aspergillus fumigatus in Iran: Is It a Challenging Issue? J Med Microbiol. 2016 Mar 23; Authors: Nabili M, Shokohi T, Moazeni M, Khodavaisy S, Aliyali M, Badiee P, Zarrinfar H, Hagen F, Badali H Abstract Triazole antifungal agents are the mainstay of aspergillosis treatment. As highlighted in numerous studies, the global increase in the prevalence of triazole resistance could hamper the management of aspergillosis. In the present three-year study, 513 samples (213 clinical and 300 environmental samples) from ten provinces of Iran were processed and screened in terms of azole resistance (4 and 1 mg/L of itraconazole and voriconazole, respectively), using selective plates. Overall, 150 A. fumigatus isolates (71 clinical and 79 environmental isolates) were detected. The isolates were confirmed by partial sequencing of β-tubulin gene. Susceptibility tests against triazole agents were performed based on CLSI (M38-A2) document. The CYP51A gene was sequenced in order to detect mutations. The minimum inhibitory concentration of itraconazole against 10 (6.6%) strains, including clinical (n=3, 4.2%) and environmental (n=7, 8.8%) strains, was higher than the breakpoint and epidemiological cut-off value. Based on the findings, the prevalence of azole-resistant A. fumigatus in Iran has remarkably increased from 3.3% to 6.6% in comparison with earlier epidemiological research. Among...
Source: Journal of Medical Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: J Med Microbiol Source Type: research