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Genotypic diversity and antifungal susceptibility of Cryptococcus neoformans isolates from paediatric patients in China
Author(s) -
Hong Nan,
Chen Min,
Xu Nan,
AlHatmi Abdullah M. S.,
Zhang Chao,
Pan Wei H.,
Hagen Ferry,
Boekhout Teun,
Xu Jianping,
Zou Xian B.,
Liao Wan Q.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
mycoses
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.13
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1439-0507
pISSN - 0933-7407
DOI - 10.1111/myc.12863
Subject(s) - cryptococcus neoformans , itraconazole , cryptococcosis , fluconazole , cryptococcus , flucytosine , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , genotype , multilocus sequence typing , antifungal , medicine , virology , genetics , gene
Abstract Cryptococcosis is a life‐threatening mycosis primarily occurring in adult patients particularly those with immunosuppression such as HIV infection/ AIDS . The number of reported cases of paediatric cryptococcosis has increased in the last decade around the world, including China. However, current information on the characteristics of cryptococcosis in children, particularly the genotypic diversity and antifungal susceptibility of the isolates, is limited. In the present study, a total of 25 paediatric isolates of Cryptococcus neoformans were genotyped using the ISHAM ‐ MLST scheme. In vitro susceptibility to antifungal agents of the 22 isolates was tested using the CLSI M27‐A3 method. Our analyses revealed that the genotypic diversity of C. neoformans isolates from Chinese paediatric patients was low, with ST 5 (80%) and ST 31 (12%) being the two major sequence types. Reduced susceptibility to fluconazole ( FLU ), 5‐flucytosine (5‐ FC ) and itraconazole ( ITR ) was observed among C. neoformans isolates from Chinese paediatric patients, particularly among the ST 5 isolates, which was similar to observations made on C. neoformans isolates from Chinese adult patients. In addition, the majority of isolates (3/4, 75%) obtained from deceased patients showed decreased antifungal susceptibility, which indicates that further monitoring of antifungal susceptibility of Cryptococcus isolates is warranted in management of paediatric cryptococcosis.