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Mycoses 2001Over recent years the clinical importance of mucormycosis has significantly increased. Most frequently mucormycosis occurs in neutropenic patients with haematological... (Review)
Review
Over recent years the clinical importance of mucormycosis has significantly increased. Most frequently mucormycosis occurs in neutropenic patients with haematological diseases. It is caused by fungi of the order Mucorales. The clinical patterns of the disease produced by different genera or species of Mucorales are virtually identical. Rhizopus, Absidia, Rhizomucor and Mucor are the organisms most commonly isolated from patients who suffer from mucormycosis. Diagnosis of mucormycosis is difficult as it is based on culture methods or microscopy of clinical specimens. The diagnosis is often only made after a delay or even post-mortem. Therapy includes surgical intervention if possible and is based on systemic amphotericin B (conventional or liposomal).
Topics: Amphotericin B; Antifungal Agents; Dermatomycoses; Female; Humans; Male; Mucorales; Mucormycosis
PubMed: 11714058
DOI: No ID Found -
Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery Apr 2021A 7-month-old, male Magellanic penguin (), housed in an outdoor exhibit, developed acute neurologic signs that progressed to death over 2 days. On gross examination, the...
A 7-month-old, male Magellanic penguin (), housed in an outdoor exhibit, developed acute neurologic signs that progressed to death over 2 days. On gross examination, the bird had congested, edematous lungs, and cerebellar hemorrhage. Histologic examination identified granulomatous pneumonia and encephalitis, with thrombosis and eosinophilic, branching fungal hyphae that had invaded the meningeal vessel walls. Polymerase chain reaction identified the fungus in the brain as , an uncommon cause of mucormycosis. This organism has previously been reported in respiratory, skeletal, and sino-orbital lesions of avian species. This clinical report describes meningoencephalitis associated with in a penguin.
Topics: Animals; Granuloma; Male; Meningoencephalitis; Mucormycosis; Rhizomucor; Spheniscidae
PubMed: 33892594
DOI: 10.1647/1082-6742-35.1.86 -
Gastroenterology Research Oct 2023Mucormycosis is a devastating fungal infection that is usually seen in immunocompromised hosts. It is caused by fungi of the subphylum , order , with most cases caused... (Review)
Review
Mucormycosis is a devastating fungal infection that is usually seen in immunocompromised hosts. It is caused by fungi of the subphylum , order , with most cases caused by , , or species. It can involve any organ system and can disseminate in severe cases. Lately, there has been an increased number of reports for mucormycosis infection in immunocompetent patients. Gastrointestinal system involvement is rare compared to other organ systems but has been increasingly reported in the literature. Mucormycosis can affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract and lead to different presentations depending on the area of involvement. Due to the paucity of the condition, there has been no specific guidelines on how to treat gastrointestinal mucormycosis. In this review, we discuss the risk factors of gastrointestinal mucormycosis, clinical presentation, approach to diagnosis, and most recent treatment modalities for gastrointestinal mucormycosis.
PubMed: 37937225
DOI: 10.14740/gr1662 -
Journal of Infection and Chemotherapy :... Mar 2022Disseminated Rhizomucor pusillus infection is a very rare but fatal complication in immunocompromised patients, because of aggressive clinical process with delayed...
Disseminated Rhizomucor pusillus infection is a very rare but fatal complication in immunocompromised patients, because of aggressive clinical process with delayed diagnosis by routine laboratory tests. Recently, cell-free DNA next-generation sequencing (cfDNA NGS) has been used for the timely detection of infectious pathogens including mucormycosis. Herein, we described an 18-year-old male with Philadelphia-like acute lymphoblastic leukemia who received a timely diagnosis of R. pusillus infection by cell-free DNA next-generation sequencing, and confirmed by silver staining and qPCR on biopsy tissue. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first case of disseminated R. pusillus infection detected by cfDNA NGS and confirmed by histology in an adult leukemia patient. In addition, this case was supposed to be the most extensive R. pusillus infection diagnosed, involving the lung, skin, liver, kidney, spleen and brain, and the only one case who survived the infection had a favorable outcome through treatment with liposome amphotericin B sequential posaconazole. This case suggested that cfDNA NGS could be used to successfully detect rare pathogen infections, and this was especially important for R. pusillus because timely diagnosis and effective treatment could improve the prognosis of this kind of patient.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Antifungal Agents; Cell-Free Nucleic Acids; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Humans; Male; Mucormycosis; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma; Rhizomucor
PubMed: 34955408
DOI: 10.1016/j.jiac.2021.12.007 -
Medical Mycology Case Reports Jun 2021This is the first published case report of a child with acute lymphatic leukemia developing a fatal mucormycosis during blinatumomab treatment. The patient showed...
This is the first published case report of a child with acute lymphatic leukemia developing a fatal mucormycosis during blinatumomab treatment. The patient showed multiple, systemic thromboembolic lesions with ischemia, bleeding and infarction in almost all organs. The child succumbed to increased brain pressure resulting in cerebral herniation. This case particularly illustrates the fulminant progression and huge challenges of diagnosing and treating mucormycosis in children with hemato-oncological diseases during treatment with targeted therapeutic antibodies (blinatumomab).
PubMed: 33489743
DOI: 10.1016/j.mmcr.2020.12.002 -
International Journal of Biological... Oct 2021This work aimed the application of a new biocatalyst for biodiesel production from residual agro-industrial fatty acids. A recombinant Pichia pastoris displaying lipase...
This work aimed the application of a new biocatalyst for biodiesel production from residual agro-industrial fatty acids. A recombinant Pichia pastoris displaying lipase from Rhizomucor miehei (RML) on the cell surface, using the PIR-1 anchor system, were prepared using glycerol as the carbon source. The biocatalyst, named RML-PIR1 showed optimum temperature of 45 °C (74.0 U/L). The stability tests resulted in t of 3.49 and 2.15 h at 40 and 45 °C, respectively. RML-PIR1 was applied in esterification reactions using industrial co-products as substrates, palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) and soybean fatty acid distillate (SFAD). The highest productivity was observed for SFAD after 48 h presenting 79.1% of conversion using only 10% of biocatalyst and free-solvent system. This is about ca. eight times higher than commercial free RML in the same conditions. The stabilizing agents study revealed that the treatment using glutaraldehyde (GA) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) enabled increased stability and reuse of biocatalyst. It was observed by SEM analysis that the treatment modified the cell morphology. RML-PIR1-GA presented 87.9% of the initial activity after 6 reuses, whilst the activity of unmodified RML-PIR decreased by 40% after the first use. These results were superior to those obtained in the literature, making this new biocatalyst promising for biotechnological applications, such as the production of biofuels on a large scale.
Topics: Agriculture; Biocatalysis; Biofuels; Esterification; Industrial Waste; Lipase; Rhizomucor; Saccharomycetales; Substrate Specificity; Temperature
PubMed: 34455007
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2021.08.173 -
Seminars in Respiratory and Critical... Dec 2011Mucormycosis (formerly zygomycosis) is a life-threatening opportunistic mycosis that infects a broad range of hosts with qualitative or quantitative defects in innate... (Review)
Review
Mucormycosis (formerly zygomycosis) is a life-threatening opportunistic mycosis that infects a broad range of hosts with qualitative or quantitative defects in innate immunity, including patients with severe neutropenia, recipients of corticosteroids or other immunosuppressive medications, poorly controlled diabetes mellitus, and those with iron overload states. Mucormycosis has recently emerged as breakthrough sinopulmonary infection in hematologic patients and recipients of transplantation being on antifungal prophylaxis with Aspergillus-active antifungals that lack activity against Mucorales. Unlike pulmonary aspergillosis, the prognosis and outcome of pulmonary mucormycosis have not improved significantly over the last decade, mainly because of difficulties in early diagnosis and the limited activity of current antifungal agents against Mucorales. Recent evidence suggests a critical role for iron metabolism and fungal-endothelial cell interactions in pathogenesis of mucormycosis, and holds promise for development of novel therapeutic strategies. Currently, prompt initiation of antifungal therapy with a lipid amphotericin B-based regimen, reversal of underlying host factors, and aggressive surgical approach offers the best chances for survival of patients infected with this devastating mycosis.
Topics: Antifungal Agents; Debridement; Humans; Hyperbaric Oxygenation; Immunocompromised Host; Lung Diseases, Fungal; Mucor; Mucorales; Mucormycosis; Opportunistic Infections; Rhizomucor; Rhizopus
PubMed: 22167397
DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1295717 -
Journal of the Association of Medical... Mar 2023Angioinvasive infection with dissemination to the liver and spleen is exceedingly uncommon, representing less than 1% of reported cases of mucormycosis.
BACKGROUND
Angioinvasive infection with dissemination to the liver and spleen is exceedingly uncommon, representing less than 1% of reported cases of mucormycosis.
METHODS
Diagnosis of mucormycosis is often difficult using conventional methods that rely on broad-based non-septate hyphae present on histologic examination and morphological identification of the cultured organism. Our laboratory also uses an in-house panfungal molecular assay to rapidly diagnose invasive fungal infection when conventional methods do not provide definitive results.
RESULTS
Herein we present a case of disseminated mucormycosis with hepatosplenic involvement in a 49-year-old female with acute myelogenous leukemia following induction chemotherapy. But in this case repeated tissue biopsy cultures were negative. infection was diagnosed using an in-house panfungal PCR/sequencing assay based on dual priming oligonucleotide primers.
CONCLUSIONS
New molecular assays facilitate prompt diagnosis of invasive fungal infections.
PubMed: 37008581
DOI: 10.3138/jammi-2022-0020 -
Journal, Genetic Engineering &... May 2022Protease is one of the most important industrial enzymes. The importance of protease bioproduction comes from meeting the increasing demand for this enzyme especially in...
BACKGROUND
Protease is one of the most important industrial enzymes. The importance of protease bioproduction comes from meeting the increasing demand for this enzyme especially in the cheese industry. Rhizomucor miehei protease is the preferred substitute for the traditional rennet. Solid-state fermentation (SSF) shows promising results in enzyme production. An optimization strategy was applied to optimize the production of Rhizomucor miehei protease in a solid medium. The components of the fermentation medium were screened by using the one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) approach. The optimization process then was performed by using the response surface methodology (RSM) approach based on five factors (fermentation time, temperature, pH, moisture content, nitrogen concentration) at five levels. Specific milk clotting activity and milk clotting activity/proteolytic activity ratio were considered as response variables in the optimization process.
RESULTS
Among several combinations, wheat bran was selected as the best substrate. Casein was selected based on preliminary screening of nitrogen sources. The optimal conditions identified by RSM analysis were found to be 81.21 h, 41.11°C, 6.31, 80%, and 1.33% for fermentation time, temperature, pH, moisture content, and casein concentration, respectively. The performed fermentation process under the optimized conditions gave an enzymatic extract with the values of 5.11 mg/mL, 2258.13 Soxhlet unit/mL, 441.90 Soxhlet unit/mg, 1.14 protease unit/mg, and 388.66 for protein content, milk clotting activity, specific clotting activity, specific proteolytic activity, and milk clotting activity/proteolytic activity ratio, respectively. The aforementioned values were close to the predicted values.
CONCLUSION
The high milk clotting activity and the relatively low proteolytic activity signify higher specificity of the produced enzyme, which is favorable in cheese making. The observed results reveal the efficiency of the applied statistical approaches in obtaining desired values of response variables and minimizing experimental runs, as well as achieving good predictions for response variables.
PubMed: 35635657
DOI: 10.1186/s43141-022-00358-9 -
Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) Oct 2022Morphology plays an important role in the fermentation bioprocess of filamentous fungi. In this study, we investigated the controlling strategies of morphology that...
Morphology plays an important role in the fermentation bioprocess of filamentous fungi. In this study, we investigated the controlling strategies of morphology that improved the efficiency of lipase (RML) production using a high-yield First, the inoculated spore concentrations were optimized in seed culture, and the RML activity increased by 43.4% with the well-controlled mycelium pellets in both ideal sizes and concentrations. Then, the initial nitrogen source and agitation strategies were optimized to regulate the morphology of in a 5 L bioreactor, and the established stable fermentation system increased the RML activity to 232.0 U/mL, combined with an increase in total RML activity from 98,080 U to 487,179 U. Furthermore, the optimized fermentation strategy was verified by a high-yield and achieved an additional improvement of RML activity, up to 320.0 U/mL. Moreover, this optimized fermentation bioprocess was successfully scaled up to a 50 L bioreactor, and the RML activity reached 550.0 U/mL. This work has established a stable precision fermentation bioprocess for RML production by in bioreactors, and the controlling strategy developed in this study could potentially be extended to an industrial scale for RML production with high efficiency.
PubMed: 36354521
DOI: 10.3390/bioengineering9110610