New Breath Diagnostics for Fungal Disease
Author:
Jenna Diefenderfer, Heather D. Bean, Emily A. Higgins Keppler
Date: 7 February 2024
Abstract:
Purpose of Review
Diagnosis of fungal disease etiology is often difcult, compounded by inaccurate or delayed diagnostic
methods. Breath-based biomarkers are being investigated as a novel target for clinical diagnostics. This review aims to
summarize recent advancements, identify gaps, and discuss future research directions for breath-based fungal diagnostics.
Recent Findings
Studies conducted in vitro, in animal models, and in human breath show fungi produce a large and diverse
volatile metabolome. Recent studies on Aspergillus, Candida, Rhizopus, Coccidioides, Trichoderma, Fusarium, and Alternaria demonstrate the feasibility of identifying infectious etiology using fungal volatile profles. However, the majority of data
on fungal volatiles come from in vitro analyses, which have limited translatability to in vivo infections; thus, future studies
should focus on in vivo volatile profles to develop breath tests for diagnosing infections and monitoring antifungal therapy.
Summary
This review describes recent studies that examine volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as biomarkers to detect
and diferentiate pathogenic fungi, highlighting the feasibility of breath-based diagnostics for fungal disease.
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