In the June 2004 issue of your journal, Scotter described a case of aspergillus peritonitis in a patient undergoing renal dialysis diagnosed by the polymerase chain reaction and galactomannan detection. We had a similar case of aspergillus peritonitis detected by (repeated) culture of peritoneal fluid and a positive serum galactomannan detection test. An 82 year old man under continuous ambulat...

A limited therapeutic arsenal against increasing clinical disease due to Aspergillus spp. necessitates urgent characterisation of new antifungal targets. Here we describe the discovery of novel, low micromolar chemical inhibitors of Aspergillus fumigatus family 18 plant-type chitinase A1 (AfChiA1) by high-throughput screening (HTS). Analysis of the binding mode by X-ray crystallography confirme...

Dear Editor, The increasing incidence of aspergillosis emphasizes to improve the diagnostic tools. 1 Aspergillus fumigatus is associated with a high rate of mortality among patients receiving Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT). Diagnosis in the early stages of invasive aspergillosis (IA) is very difficult, as clinical and radiological sings are nonspecific. 2 In this study, we used nested PCR te...

PHB degradation capabilities of seven species of Aspergillus namely Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus ochraceus, Aspergillus nidulans, Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus parasiticus on the polymer produced by Rhodospseudomonas palustris KU003 were assayed . Among all the fungi investigated, the ability of A.niger to utilize the biopolymer was the highest...

Fluconazole (FLC), a triazole with limited activity against Aspergillus species, is frequently used as prophylaxis in leukemia patients and bone marrow transplant recipients. Prior FLC use has been associated with an increasing incidence of invasive aspergillosis in these patients. We hypothesized that prior exposure of Aspergillus fumigatus to FLC could result in altered in vitro susceptibilit...

The antifungal activity of 40 coumarins was tested against the fungal strains: Candida albicans (ATCC 14053), Aspergillus fumigatus (ATCC 16913) and Fusarium solani (ATCC 36031), using the broth microdilution method. Osthenol showed the most effective antifungal activity among all the compounds tested, with a MIC value of 125 microg/ml for Fusarium solani and 250 micro/ml for Candida albicans a...

A PCR assay was developed for the diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis in immunocompromised patients. For this purpose, the complete nucleotide sequences of the genes encoding the 18S rRNA of Aspergillus nidulans, Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus niger, and Aspergillus flavus were elucidated and aligned to the sequences of Aspergillus fumigatus and other clinically relevant prokaryotic and eukar...

The Aspergillus Genome Database (AspGD; http://www.aspgd.org) is a freely available web-based resource that was designed for Aspergillus researchers and is also a valuable source of information for the entire fungal research community. In addition to being a repository and central point of access to genome, transcriptome and polymorphism data, AspGD hosts a comprehensive comparative genomics to...

Aspergillus fumigatus produces 2-pentylfuran (2-PF) when cultured on blood agar, nutrient agar and other media. As 2-PF is not known to be produced by mammalian metabolism we hypothesized that it is detectable in breath of patients colonized or infected with A. fumigatus. Breath was tested for 2-PF from normal subjects, those undergoing chemotherapy, and adults at risk of colonization or infect...