Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.9
4.7
Journals
JoF
Special Issues
Rare Fungal Infectious Agents
share announcement

Rare Fungal Infectious Agents

A special issue of Journal of Fungi (ISSN 2309-608X). This special issue belongs to the section "Fungal Pathogenesis and Disease Control".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2024) | Viewed by 4257

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Anna Skiada

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
First Department of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Interests: fungal epidemiology; mucormycosis; treatment of fungal infections
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Maria (Miranda) Drogari-Apiranthitou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory, 4th Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Interests: clinical microbiology; medical mycology; mucormycosis; fusariosis; rare fungal infections

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the expanding population of immunocompromised patients and those treated in intensive care units, rare fungal infectious agents have emerged as important pathogens, causing invasive infections associated with high morbidity and mortality. These fungi range from extremely rare, such as Rhytidhysteron spp., to relatively “common”, such as Mucorales or Fusarium spp. In the latter case, new species, e.g., Rhizopus homothallicus, Syncephalastrum spp. or Fusarium dimerum, have been reported as being responsible for disseminated and invasive fungal diseases in humans. Diagnosis and treatment are challenging. Physicians should have a high index of suspicion because early diagnosis is of paramount importance. Conventional diagnostic methods such as cultures and histopathology are still essential, but rapid and more specific molecular techniques both for detection and identification of the infecting pathogens are being developed and will hopefully lead to early targeted treatment. The management of invasive fungal infections is multimodal. Despite the use of available antifungals, mortality remains high.

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide more information about the epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of invasive fungal infections due to rare fungi, helping physicians to diagnose and treat these infections more effectively.

Dr. Anna Skiada
Dr. Maria (Miranda) Drogari-Apiranthitou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Fungi is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • mucormycosis
  • fusariosis
  • scedosporiosis
  • Emergomyces
  • Lomentospora
  • Apophysomyces
  • Rhytidhysteron
  • Saksenaea
  • emerging yeasts
  • emerging molds

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review, Other

8 pages, 1512 KiB  
Communication
Aspergillus terreus Antibody Serosurveillance in Tyrol: A Population-Based, Cross-Sectional Study of a Healthy Population
by Stephan Steixner, Roya Vahedi Shahandashti, Anita Siller, Hanno Ulmer, Norbert Reider, Harald Schennach and Cornelia Lass-Flörl
J. Fungi 2023, 9(10), 1008; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof9101008 - 12 Oct 2023
Viewed by 734
Abstract
The rare, but emerging mold Aspergillus terreus is an important pathogen in some geographical areas, like Tyrol (Austria) and Houston (Texas). The reason for this high prevalence is unknown. The present serosurveillance study aimed to evaluate the trends in levels of A. terreus [...] Read more.
The rare, but emerging mold Aspergillus terreus is an important pathogen in some geographical areas, like Tyrol (Austria) and Houston (Texas). The reason for this high prevalence is unknown. The present serosurveillance study aimed to evaluate the trends in levels of A. terreus-specific IgG antibodies in various regions of Tyrol and to compare the results to the environmental spread of A. terreus in Tyrol. Therefore, 1058 serum samples from healthy blood donors were evaluated. Data revealed a significant difference between the Tyrolean Upland and Lowland. Moreover, female participants had higher A. terreus IgG antibody levels than male participants. The differences found in our study are consistent with the distributional differences in environmental and clinical samples described in previous studies, supporting that A. terreus IgG antibody levels reflect the environmental epidemiology of A. terreus in Tyrol. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rare Fungal Infectious Agents)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research, Other

16 pages, 809 KiB  
Review
Rare Yeasts in Latin America: Uncommon Yet Meaningful
by Óscar Gil, Juan Camilo Hernández-Pabón, Bryan Tabares, Carlos Lugo-Sánchez and Carolina Firacative
J. Fungi 2023, 9(7), 747; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof9070747 - 14 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1539
Abstract
Systemic infections caused by rare yeasts are increasing given the rise in immunocompromised or seriously ill patients. Even though globally, the clinical significance of these emerging opportunistic yeasts is increasingly being recognized, less is known about the epidemiology of rare yeasts in Latin [...] Read more.
Systemic infections caused by rare yeasts are increasing given the rise in immunocompromised or seriously ill patients. Even though globally, the clinical significance of these emerging opportunistic yeasts is increasingly being recognized, less is known about the epidemiology of rare yeasts in Latin America. This review collects, analyzes, and contributes demographic and clinical data from 495 cases of infection caused by rare yeasts in the region. Among all cases, 32 species of rare yeasts, distributed in 12 genera, have been reported in 8 Latin American countries, with Trichosporon asahii (49.5%), Rhodotorula mucilaginosa (11.1%), and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (7.8%) the most common species found. Patients were mostly male (58.3%), from neonates to 84 years of age. Statistically, surgery and antibiotic use were associated with higher rates of Trichosporon infections, while central venous catheter, leukemia, and cancer were associated with higher rates of Rhodotorula infections. From all cases, fungemia was the predominant diagnosis (50.3%). Patients were mostly treated with amphotericin B (58.7%). Crude mortality was 40.8%, with a higher risk of death from fungemia and T. asahii infections. Culture was the main diagnostic methodology. Antifungal resistance to one or more drugs was reported in various species of rare yeasts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rare Fungal Infectious Agents)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Other

Jump to: Research, Review

11 pages, 742 KiB  
Systematic Review
Emergomycosis, an Emerging Thermally Dimorphic Fungal Infection: A Systematic Review
by Kalaiselvi Vinayagamoorthy, Dinesh Reddy Gangavaram, Anna Skiada and Hariprasath Prakash
J. Fungi 2023, 9(10), 1039; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof9101039 - 23 Oct 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1535
Abstract
Emergomycosis is an endemic mycosis caused by the Emergomyces species. Infections due to this agent have been reported globally. Hence, the present systematic review on Emergomyces infections was conducted to study the disease epidemiology, underlying diseases and risk factors, causative agents, and treatment [...] Read more.
Emergomycosis is an endemic mycosis caused by the Emergomyces species. Infections due to this agent have been reported globally. Hence, the present systematic review on Emergomyces infections was conducted to study the disease epidemiology, underlying diseases and risk factors, causative agents, and treatment and outcome. The MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science databases were searched systematically with appropriate keywords from January 1990 to October 2022. A total of 77 cases of emergomycosis were included in the analysis. Emergomycosis was most commonly seen in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection (n = 61, 79.2%) and HIV-uninfected patients with or without other comorbidities (n = 16, 20.8%). The underlying disease and risk factors significantly associated with emergomycosis in the HIV-infected patients were CD4+ T-cell counts less than 100 cells/mm3 (n = 55, 90.2%), anaemia (n = 30, 49.2%), and thrombocytopenia (n = 17, 27.9%), whereas in the HIV-uninfected patients, treatment with immunosuppressive drugs (n = 10, 62.5%), renal disease (n = 8, 50%), transplant recipients (n = 6, 37.5%), and diabetes mellitus (n = 4, 25%) were the significant risk factors associated with emergomycosis. Emergomyces africanus (n = 55, 71.4%) is the most common causative agent, followed by E. pasteurianus (n = 9, 11.7%) and E. canadensis (n = 5, 6.5%). E. africanus was most often isolated from HIV-infected patients (n = 54, 98.2%), whereas E. pasteurianus was most common in HIV-uninfected patients (n = 5, 55.6%). The all-cause mortality rate of the total cohort is 42.9%. No significant variation in the mortality rate is observed between the HIV-infected patients (n = 28, 36.4%) and the HIV-uninfected patients (n = 5, 6.5%). In conclusion, with an increase in the immunosuppressed population across the globe in addition to HIV infection, the case burden of emergomycosis may increase in the future. Hence, clinicians and mycologists should be vigilant and clinically suspicious of emergomycosis, which helps in early diagnosis and initiation of antifungal treatment to prevent disease mortality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rare Fungal Infectious Agents)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop