Fusarium: The versatile pathogen

Ananya Tupaki-Sreepurna, Anupma Jyoti KindoIndian Journal of Medical Microbiology 2018 36(1):8-17Fusarium is an emerging human opportunistic pathogen of growing importance, especially among immunosuppressed haematology patients due to an increased incidence of disseminated infections over the past two decades. This trend is expected only to continue due to the advances in medical and surgical technologies that will prolong the lives of the severely ill, making these patients susceptible to rare opportunistic infections. Production of mycotoxins, enzymes such as proteases, angio-invasive property and an intrinsically resistant nature, makes this genus very difficult to treat. Fusarium is frequently isolated from the cornea and less commonly from nail, skin, blood, tissue, Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) fluid, urine and pleural fluid. Conventional microscopy establishes the genus, but accurate speciation requires multilocus sequence typing with housekeeping genes such as internal transcribed spacer, translation elongation factor-1α and RPB1 and 2 (largest and second largest subunits of RNA polymerase), for which expansive internet databases exist. Identifying pathogenic species is of epidemiological significance, and the treatment includes immune reconstitution by granulocyte–colony-stimulating factor, granulocyte macrophage–colony-stimulating factor and a combination of the most active species – specific anti...
Source: Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Source Type: research