Mycetoma is a chronic granulomatous infection of cutaneous and subcutaneous tissues caused by filamentous bacteria (actinomycetoma) or fungi (eumycetoma). The most common site the foot, followed hand, but sometimes other body parts may also be infected. patients present with painless hard swelling mass, multiple sinuses, pathognomonic discharge grains. A 42-year-old male patient, presented pain...

The aerobic actinomycetes are a large group of soil-inhabiting bacteria that occur worldwide. Some of them are the main cause of two important diseases, nocardiosis and actinomycetoma. To identify the prevalence and geographic distribution of aerobic actinomycetes in soil of Qazvin province, a study was carried out during 2006-2007. In this study, the incidence and diversity of medically import...

Mycetoma is a unique neglected tropical disease which is endemic in what is known as the "mycetoma belt". The disease has many devastating impacts on patients and communities in endemic area and is characterised by massive deformity, destruction and disability. Mycetoma is commonly seen in the foot and hand and less frequent in other parts of the body. Mycetoma of the head and neck is a rarity ...

Nocardia brasiliensis is an intracellular microorganism and the most common etiologic agent of actinomycetoma in the Americas. Several intracellular pathogens induce an immunosuppressive microenvironment through increases in CD4+ Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Treg), thus downregulating other T-cell subpopulations and assuring survival in the host. In this study, we determined whether N. brasiliens...

Mycetoma is a chronic progressive granulomatous infection of the skin and subcutaneous tissue most often affecting the lower extremities, typically a single foot. Disease is unique from other cutaneous or subcutaneous diseases in its triad of localized swelling, underlying sinus tracts, and production of grains or granules (comprised of aggregations of the causative organism) within the sinus t...

Fluorination has been widely used in chemical synthesis, but is rare in nature. The only known biological fluorination scope is represented by the fl pathway from Streptomyces cattleya that produces fluoroacetate (FAc) and 4-fluorothreonine (4-FT). Here we report the identification of a novel pathway for FAc and 4-FT biosynthesis from the actinomycetoma-causing pathogen Nocardia brasiliensis AT...

Mycetoma is an infectious, noncontagious disease caused by free-living bacteria (actinomycetoma) or fungi (eumycetoma) that are traumatically implanted into the body.1 In humans, the hand and foot are the most commonly affected sites and involvement of the abdominal wall or viscera is rare.1–3 Causal agents of mycetoma produce organized aggregates of bacteria or fungal hyphae called grains in a...

Actinomycetoma, caused by the intracellular bacterium Nocardia brasiliensis, is characterized by an infiltration of several inflammatory cell populations. To explore aspects of the immune response in the pathogenesis of these bacteria we injected 10(6) CFU in footpads of BALB/c mice. After 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 30 and 90 days immunohistochemistry was performed to compare presence and distribution of t...