In vivo biofilm composition of Aspergillus fumigatus
 When Aspergillus is cultured in the laboratory the individual cells are strung together end to end in a thread-like structures called hyphae. These extend across the growth media absorbing nutrients as they go. The individual hyphae are also 'glued' together by a sticky gel (ECM) that can also hold the hyphae on many different surfaces (including surgical implants, catheters). The ECM is exuded many different fungi and has many functions including enabling resistance to antifungal drugs.
This paper shows that A.fumigatus has a biofilm both when infecting in the form of an aspergilloma or invasive aspergillosis. There are differences in chemical composition of the ECM when comparing each form of infection, possibly reflecting differences in the way the fungus grows in each form., or perhaps different strategies required to maintain growth under two very different immunological scenarios for host resistance.
Future drug development may have to take in for account how well the drugs can penetrate Aspergillus biofilms in order to maximise efficacy.
Latest News and Articles
European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM) have made all of the talks made to the 4th Trends in Medical Mycology available as video with accompanying slides for a period of 12 months. There are 94 talks in all, many by speakers and on subjects relevant to Aspergillus e.g. Prof David Denning, Dr Tom Walsh, Olivier Lortholary, Johan Maetens & Prof Malcolm Richardson.
There have been 53 additions to the articles section, 8 of which are reviews. We have picked out a few of the highlights here:
Monitoring of nosocomial invasive aspergillosis and early evidence of an outbreak using cumulative sum tests (CUSUM)
Nosocomial invasive aspergillosis (NIA) cases were recorded and added to a cumulative sum (CUSUM) taken over a 5 year period. This enables small insignificant fluctuations from the mean number of cases per month to be ignored while making larger or more persistant changes more obvious.
Alerts triggered by an unexpected increase in CUSUM where used to initiate a round of checks for compliance with measures designed to prevent fungal contamination of wards e.g. during constructions/renovations, air room pressures, air handling, filters & general cleaning of the wards.
Significant links were found between NIA and the degree of Aspergillus contamination of the air in common rooms. Construction & renovation works were not found to cause significant problems in this study, suggesting that measures put in place to prevent problems had worked well.
Airborne Aspergillus contamination during hospital construction works: Efficacy of protective measures
A series of protective measures were put into place during a large construction project at a major hospital. The measures were successful in preventing any increase in contamination of the hospital by the construction works (a known major risk factor) by Aspergillus. The guidelines used for this study are available here.
Septins AspA and AspC are important for normal development and limit the emergence of
new growth foci in the multicellular fungus Aspergillus nidulans
Septins are important for the normal progress of the cell cycle and are present throughout the eucaryotic kingdom. They form a scaffold around which several components of the cell cycle aggregate. Mutation of septin genes in Aspergillus cause germ tube and brach emergence, abnormal septation and disorganized conidiophores.
In this paper mutation of septin genes AspA and AspC in A. nidulans show that septins are involved in the emergence of new growth foci - the first such observation in any organism.
Comparison of three antigenic extracts of Eurotium amstelodami in farmer's lung disease serological diagnosis
Development of three extracts from ascospore proteins to determine those involved on antibody detection and thus improve serological diagnosis of farmers lung disease. The authors determined 67% cut off for sensitivity and 92% for specificity.
Reviews
PCR-based diagnosis of human fungal infections
"We examine the quality of PCR-based studies for fungal diagnostics using 42 variables within the Minimum Information for Publication of Quantitative Real-Time PCR Experiments guidelines. This review focuses on taxon-directed PCR assays for the diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis, candidiasis and Pneumocystis pneumonia. Finally, we evaluate broad-range fungal PCR assays capable of detecting a wide spectrum of human pathogens."
Host-derived lipids and oxylipins are crucial signals
in modulating mycotoxin production by fungi
Contamination of grain by mycotoxins is a major problem for the agricultural industry. Plant derived lipids have been found to mediate the host-pathogen interaction. LOX plant genes and host lipids seem to imitate fungal genes that modulate mycotoxin production and conidiation suggesting targets within the host plant that could be utilised to breed plant strains that will lower mycotoxin contamination levels in the crop.
Images
(Requires registration)
Some images of heavily blood stained sputum from a patient with chronic pulmonary aspergillosis and aspergillomas, can be viewed in the image library under CPA images (PT MW).
Patients
 The Aspergillosis for Patients meeting in Rome (Feb 2010) will now go ahead. This is the first meeting for patients of its kind and we encourage patients to participate in a programme of lectures and discussions. Places are limited so be sure to register as soon as possible. Book your place here.
Need to ask an expert anything?
We are offering the opportunity for patients who cannot attend to have theri questions asked of the panel of experts at the meeting. Please send any questions here and we will announce how you will get the reply to your questions on this newsletter next month
Greetings Cards
A special thanks to everyone who bought Chistmas cards in aid of the Fungal Research Trust - we raised £95 during December. Our thanks go out too in particular to Jill Fairweather who made this possible.
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
2 jobs currently being advertised: View
- Characterization of fungal allergens associated with severe asthma. University of Manchester, UK. Closing date 24th January 2010.
- Multi-modality imaging of infection and inflammation using fluorescently labelled fungi. University of Manchester, UK. Closing date 5th Feb 2010.
Advertise your vacancy free of charge on the Aspergillus Website here
Education and Teaching
4th Trends in Medical Mycology (TIMM) conference talks have been made available for 2010 via the TIMM On-Demand Video Portal
Veterinary
 Designing voriconazole treatment for racing pigeons: balancing between hepatic enzyme auto induction and toxicity has been added to the Veterinary section.
The oral dosage schedules considered most appropriate are detailed.
Clinicopathologic and diagnostic imaging characteristics of systemic aspergillosis in 30 dogs
The authors found that Aspergillus deflectus and A. terreus were the principal infectious agents in the case series.
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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The Aspergillus Team.
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