Advances Against Aspergillosis
 The latest Advances Against Aspergillosis Conference took place on 4-6 February 2010 in Rome and was the most successful yet with well over 500 registered participants and ~200 submitted abstracts. There was also an additional meeting for patients that took place on 3rd February which was also very encouraging - see Patients section below.
Five topics from 2009/2010 were selected by Professors David Perlin and Claudio Viscoli as highlights of 2009 and the subject areas were:
1) Surface hydrophobin prevents immune recognition of airborne fungal spores (link to paper)
2) Impaired interferon-gamma responses, increased interleukin-17 expression, and a tumor necrosis factor-alpha transcriptional program in invasive aspergillosis (link to paper)
3) Azole resistance in Aspergillus fumigatus: a side-effect of environmental fungicide use? (link to paper)
4) Randomized Controlled Trial of Oral Antifungal Treatment for Severe Asthma with Fungal Sensitization The Fungal Asthma Sensitization Trial (FAST) Study (link to paper)
5) Pre-emptive therapy (link to paper)
Latest News and Articles
 One of the main highlights noted this month was the publication of a major review and follow up of 24 cases of sphenoid sinus fungus balls.
Sphenoid sinus fungal balls are very rare and this is a very large collection with a highly detailed set of long term follow ups which many readers will find very informative.
There have been 48 additions to the articles section, 2 of which are reviews. We have picked out a few of the highlights here:
Atypical Aspergillus flavus isolates associated with chronic azole therapy
Clinical isolates of Aspergillus flavus show marked alteration in phenotype including loss of colour and poor conidiation. The changes were so marked and the resulting fungus so similar to other fungi genera that it required PCR genotyping to check that it was still an Aspergillus - something that was confirmed.
Medical mycologists should be aware that this phenomenum exists so that they can make the appropriate checks when identifying a pathogen in similar circustances.
The effects of antifungal agents to conidial and hyphal forms of Aspergillus fumigatus
Antifungal inhibitory concentrations for fungi (i.e. the concentration of antifungal at which and antifungal inhibits growth of a fungus) is routinely done using suspensions of conidia (spores). This paper looks at carrying out the same type of assay (in this case using XTT to measure metabolic rate) but using fungal hyphae instead of conidia. Suspensions of hyphae and clumps of hyphae were compared with conidial suspensions.
For amphotericin, voriconazole and itraconazole inhibition was similar for conidia and suspended hyphae but clumps where markedly more resistant. Caspofungin failed to inhibit clumps at all .
Caspofungin first-line therapy for invasive aspergillosis in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients: an European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer study
"Caspofungin at standard dose was evaluated as first-line monotherapy of mycologically documented probable/proven invasive aspergillosis (IA) (unmodified European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer/Mycosis Study Group criteria) in allogeneic hematopoietic SCT patients. The primary efficacy end point was complete or partial response at end of caspofungin treatment."
"Caspofungin first-line therapy was effective and well tolerated in allogeneic hematopoietic SCT patients with mycologically documented IA."
Variation in Competitive Ability Among Isolates of Aspergillus flavus from Different Vegetative Compatibility Groups During Maize Infection
Vegetative compatability groups (VGC) are defined as subgroups of a species capable of forming vegetative heterokaryons (which are distinct from sexual heterokaryons formed during the sexual stage of some fungi): see this review for more detail.
Amongst other features VGC's can differ in pathogenicity and ability to produce mycotoxins for example. This study mixed a reference strain with one of a range of fungi from different VGC's and infected maize with the mixture. It then tested the resulting fungal growth for sporulation & mycotoxin synthesis.
Some strains appeared to sacrifice mycotoxin synthesis for sporulation and vice versa, suggesting different 'choices' between competative ability and dispersal were made. This information could be useful when selecting strains for use in the field when inoculating plants for the purpose of reducing overall mycotoxin contamination of the crop.
Reviews
Antifungal prophylaxis in liver transplant recipients
"Although the overall incidence of fungal infections in liver transplant recipients has declined, these infections still contribute significantly to the morbidity and mortality of patients with risk factors for infection. Although antifungal prophylaxis has been widely studied and practiced, no consensus exists on which patients should receive prophylaxis, with which agent, and for what duration."
Fungal strategies for overcoming host innate immune response
"A successful pathogen is one that is able to effectively survive and evade detection by the host innate immune defense. Fungal pathogens have adopted strategies which evade host defense and eventually cause disease in at-risk patients. Shielding of stimulatory surface recognition molecules, shedding of decoy components, induction of anti-inflammatory signals, complement evasion and resilient survival capacity are successful evasion mechanisms employed by fungal pathogens."
Images
(Requires registration)
A patient (PT NC) with CPA develops a severe exacerbation of pre-existing psoriasis on treatment with posaconazole. On discontinuation of the posaconazole and a 2 week treatment with steroids the psoriasis showed significant improvement, (6 images).
Patients
 The Aspergillosis for Patients meeting in Rome (Feb 2010) was a great success with 45 participants listening to a series of excellent talks on a wide range of topics relevant to patients.
We have recorded these talks and will be making them available for viewing free of charge quite shortly - we will put up full details in the next newsletter.
Greetings Cards
A patient volunteer is making & selling handmade cards for birthdays in aid of the Fungal Research Trust. 6 cards for £6 and 75% of that goes to the FRT. Order here.
There is a newly designed Patients website now entitled 'Aspergillosis Patient Support'. Much more comprehensive than before and easier to navigate but with the same successful support group and Q & A board
Jobs
4 jobs currently being advertised: View
- Marketing and Commercial Consultant for Anti-Fungal Pharmaceutical Products. Methylgene. Closing date 27th April 2010.
- Microbiologist/Mycologist. Allergy Standards Consulting. Dublin, Ireland. Closing date 9th May 2010
- Two PhD positions on ARIADNE - a new Initial Training Network focussed on the field of fungal signalling and pathogenesis. University of Aberdeen, UK. Closing date 18th May 1020
Advertise your vacancy free of charge on the Aspergillus Website here
Education and Teaching
The first slide presentations from the Advances Against Aspergillosis 4th Meeting in Rome held on Feb 4th-6th, 2010, can now be viewed in the slides section of the educational materials. Many more will be added over the next few weeks.
Veterinary
Aspergillus fumigatus toxicity and gliotoxin levels in feedstuff for domestic animals and pets in Argentina.
"Corn silage samples intended for
cattle did not show gliotoxin contamination. All the other tested samples had
gliotoxin levels ranging from 29 to 209 lg g)1. Horse and poultry feed samples
had the greatest contamination frequency."
Blog
Donate
 It is now easy to donate to the Fungal Research Trust, the charity who principally fund the Aspergillus Website, run several patient support groups and fund research internationally.
If everyone who receives this newsletter gave £10 a year we could double our activities!
Please donate here. Or think about a legacy donation.
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
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What is RSS and how do I use it? Get help here.
Twitter
You can now receive notification of updates to the Aspergillus Website on your mobile phone via SMS texting free of charge. Go to http://twitter.com/AspergillusWeb and open a Twitter account. Follow AspergillusWeb.
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