Investigation of Virulence Factors by "Omics" Approaches

Medical Mycology Journal
Azusa Takahashi-NakaguchiAzusa Takahashi-Nakaguchi

Abstract

Aspergillus fumigatus is the predominant fungal pathogen responsible for life-threatening systemic infections in humans. Recently developed high-throughput whole genome sequencing (WGS) and RNA-Seq technologies have proven to be powerful tools for systematically investigating pathogenic organisms. In this review, we present new virulence factors obtained through our "omics" researches on A. fumigatus. We first sequenced genomes of A. fumigatus stains isolated from one infected patient at different time points, and made an important finding that although the genome (microsatellites) type of the infected strain remained unchanged, the strain exhibited several genetic changes, including acquiring therapeutic drug resistance, during patient treatment for 1.5 years. Of the various presentations of aspergillosis, pulmonary aspergilloma (PA) is one of the most common forms of A. fumigatus infection, where fungus balls are composed of fungal hyphae, inflammatory cells, fibrin, mucus, and tissue debris. Chronic necrotizing pulmonary aspergillosis (CNPA), also known as semi-invasive or invasive aspergillosis, is locally invasive and predominantly seen in patients with mild immunodeficiency or with a chronic lung disease. We compared geno...Continue Reading

References

Aug 30, 2001·Clinical Microbiology and Infection : the Official Publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases·D W Denning
Apr 9, 2002·The Lancet Infectious Diseases·David W DenningJoan W Bennett
Jul 26, 2011·Current Opinion in Microbiology·Donald C Sheppard
Sep 2, 2011·European Respiratory Review : an Official Journal of the European Respiratory Society·M KoushaA O Soubani
Sep 19, 2014·Journal of Clinical Microbiology·Daisuke HagiwaraTohru Gonoi

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Aspergillosis

Aspergillosis is the name given to a wide variety of diseases caused by infection by fungi of the genus Aspergillus. Aspergillosis occurs in chronic or acute forms which are clinically very distinct. Most cases of acute aspergillosis occur in patients with severely compromised immune systems. Chronic colonization or infection can cause complications in people with underlying respiratory illnesses. Discover the latest research on aspergillosis here.

Aspergillosis (ASM)

Aspergillosis is the name given to a wide variety of diseases caused by infection by fungi of the genus Aspergillus. Aspergillosis occurs in chronic or acute forms which are clinically very distinct. Most cases of acute aspergillosis occur in patients with severely compromised immune systems. Chronic colonization or infection can cause complications in people with underlying respiratory illnesses. Discover the latest research on aspergillosis here.