Launch of the National Aspergillosis Centre
 May 1st sees the official public launch of the world's first centre dedicated to aspergillosis. The National Aspergillosis Centre (NAC) is to be funded by the National Commissioning Group (Department of Health, National Health Service, UK) to provide long term care for patients with chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA).
Most but not all patients with CPA will be funded by the Department of Health. See referral criteria .
For those who cannot attend the meeting we will provide a live stream of the event and a recording. The full program of the meeting is here.
ABPA and other forms of aspergillosis are not covered by this new funding though patients with all forms of the disease will continue to be seen as before, and importantly the specialist laboratory services and research arms of the centre will continue to serve all forms of aspergillosis.
The National Aspergillosis Centre aims to provide comprehensive, excellent care for all patients with aspergillosis, directly or indirectly. Direct care will involve visits to the hospital. Indirect care will involve telephone or e-mail consultation, provision of appropriate and up to date laboratory testing, research and medical education, both at a national and international level.
The foundations of the National Aspergillosis Centre have been built on a long term commitment to the topic by the University of Manchester and the Fungal Research Trust, and the local support of the University Hospital of South Manchester, in particular the North West Lung Centre.
This Month
 We are about to launch a completely new website devoted to patients entitled 'Aspergillosis Patient's Support' which is based on two older websites. One of these is the 'Patient's Website' that has formed part of the Aspergillus Website for many years, and the other is the website of the Aspergillus Trust who merged with the Fungal Research Trust late last year.
Initial reaction from patients has been extremely positive with far more information available in one place than was possible before the merger, and access to the information is easier.
We also have the published papers from the 3rd Advances against Aspergillosis conference (January 2008) and have made them available on a page dedicated to the AAA conferences here. There is a huge range of subjects covered in these papers ranging from activity of antifungal agents to an overview of how to image living cells and Rob Samson's 'What is a species in Aspergillus?'
Latest News and Articles
There have been 95 additions (19 reviews) to the articles section. Readers should also note that it is now possible to read the abstract of each article simply by clicking in the Abstract link appearing alongside each article. We have picked out a few of the highlights here:
What is a species in Aspergillus?
Clarification of this confusing subject: definition of a new species, the new 'Gold standard' for species identification, the polyphasic approach using a combination of multilocus sequence data, morpholigical, physiological characteristics and ecological data.
It is proposed that sequence data be submitted to recognised databases for species descriptions and the deposition of reference cultures in at least two places is suggested.
Vaccine progress
A review of the current state of progress aimed at developing a preventative alternative to antifungal drugs. Animal models offer some evidence that this could be a successful strategy and several candidate proteins have been investigated.
Evidence-based approach to challenging issues in the management of invasive aspergillosis
Once the treatment of patients with invasive infections have begun there are several areas of major difficulty during management of the disease. This review examines what the options are if the disease worsens despite antifungal treatment, and points to consider if treating a patient receiving iatrogenic immunosuppressants (i.e. potentially harmful side effects of the therapy).
Combination therapy involving more than one antifungal drug is also discussed.
Aspergillus alabamensis, a new clinically relevant species in the section Terrei
A close relative of A. terreus that turns up in clinical isolates on immunocompetant people and is resistant to amphotericin B in vitro. Distinguished from A. terreus via multilocus sequencing.
Reviews
Efflux-Mediated Antifungal Drug Resistance
An extensive review of this vitally important process, understanding of which is and will be, increasingly important as we battle against antifungal drug resistance. A better understanding of these mechanisms should be useful in identifying new targets for antifungal strategies.
Current status of systems biology in Aspergilli
In this review, the authors present a comprehensive overview of the current status of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and metabolic modeling in Aspergillus species. Currently, 13 Aspergillus genomes divided across seven species have been sequenced (9 available in the Aspergillus Website Genomes section) with more to come, and many applications of this information on a systems level have been published.
Diagnosis
Invasion of the alveolar-capillary barrier by Aspergillus spp.: therapeutic and diagnostic implications for immunocompromised patients with invasive pulmonary aspergillosis.
This review provides an overview of host defenses, the mechanisms
by which the alveolar-capillary barrier is breeched by Aspergillus, and the
implications for diagnosis and treatment of patients with invasive pulmonary
aspergillosis.
Treatment
A new treatment protocol for Aspergillus Otomycosis has been added, rewritten by Prof Jagdish Chander.
Conferences
We have designed a page dedicated to the Advances against Aspergillosis meetings. Papers, abstracts, slides, websites and details of future meetings are available.
Genomes
Aspergillus flavus has been added to the list of species we have searchable genome information for.
We also have 26 papers featured in the recent 'Aspergillus Genomics and Beyond' supplement in the journal 'Fungal Genetics and Biology' (Elsevier)
Metabolites Database
New metabolites from A fumigatus have been identified and given the names:
9-deacetoxyfumigaclavine and 9-deacetylfumigaclavine
Blog
Running at roughly 4000 accesses per month the Aspergillus Blog has been an outstanding success since its inception in March 2008, doubling in use every two to three months.
This month it has covered a quick new test for aspergillosis, mobile phones as a potential source of infection in the clinic and how we define a species of Aspergillus.
Patients
There is a new Patients website entitled 'Aspergillosis Patient Support'. Much more comprehensive than before and easier to navigate but with the same successful support group and Q & A board
Technical Tips
Our discussion group (email and/or website) designed to promote discussion on technical issues for laboratory workers.
Searching the website
There is now a third facility to search for information on Aspergillus. Covering all the information in the Aspergillus Website and including a series of websites we feel contain useful information NOT currently available on the Aspergillus Website, the Aspergillus World search engine contains large amounts of focussed information from all over the world. If you can suggest more (particularly keen to access information on industrial applications) then let us know at admin@aspergillus.org.uk.
RSS
Download our updates and articles automatically every time we add to those pages- no need to wait for the next newsletter. 40 000 pages accesses per month. Use RSS.
What is RSS and how do I use it? Get help here.
Thanks for reading!
Visit our website again soon.
The Aspergillus Team.
Contact us/Feedback |
Blog
RSS
