Strain Typing and Antifungal Susceptibility Testing of Environmental and Clinical Isolates of Genera Scedosporium and Pseudallescheria

Scedosporium and its teleomorph Pseudallescheria are important pathogenic filamentous fungi which can cause opportunistic infections in human. The spectrum of clinical presentations is wide, including subcutaneous infections, mycetoma, keratitis, sinusitis, arthritis, pneumonia, and even disseminated infections and central nervous system infection. The patients get infected through traumatic implantation of debris, inhalation of air or dirty water contaminated with fungal elements. The infections can occur in both immunocompetent and immunocompromised persons, but a serious or fatal outcome is more common in the latter group. There are 12 species in genera Scedosporium and Pseudallescheria, and most of them are relevant to human diseases. These fungi are notorious for their multiple resistant to many antifungals and results in poor treatment outcome. They are ubiquitous and can be isolated from environments with high human impact such as farm, cities, polluted soil and water. Understanding of relationship between environmental and clinical isolates can help elucidate the transmission route of these fungi. The aim of current study is to understand the nature and connection of these fungi of environmental and clinical sources. We will make a field survey of Scedosporium and Pseudallescheria fungi from environment and compared them with clinical isolates by a multilocus strain typing (MLST) method. Through this, we can know if there exist certain strains which cause clinical disease in Taiwan. Then antifungal susceptibility testing of the isolates will be determined to see if there are any differences between species, sources, and strains. These data are valuable in establishing the public health policy and treatment guideline of this fungal group in the future.

Project ID:PC10501-2275
External Project ID:MOST104-2314-B182-069-MY2