Over the last ten years, recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rh G-CSF) has been widely used in the treatment of aplastic anemia (AA). It has been shown to facilitate the recovery of neutrophil count and useful for complicated bacterial or fungal infections. However, recent randomized clinical trials showed that the addition of rh G-CSF to immunosuppressive therapy had no cl...

Invasive aspergillosis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in highly immunocompromised patients with cancer. Alveolar macrophages ingest inhaled conidia (spores). Through pathogen recognition receptors that ligate fungal cell wall motifs, macrophages are able to coordinate the inflammatory response to Aspergillus species. Macrophages and dendritic cells play an important role in regulat...

We report the cloning of a gene from the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans with sequence and functional similarity to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae SIR2 gene. Deletion of the gene in C. albicans produces a dramatic phenotype: variant colony morphologies arise at frequencies as high as 1 in 10. The morphologies resemble those described previously as part of a phenotypic switching system prop...

Ethyl methanesulfonate is a mutagenic, alkylating agent and considered harmful to humans at levels greater than a certain threshold; however, the toxicity at high doses remains unclear. We report a case of a Japanese man who presented with status epilepticus, rhabdomyolysis, pancytopenia, and hair loss after accidental ingestion of a massive amount of ethyl methanesulfonate. The patient complet...

The taxonomy of fungal species, similar to that of many other microorganisms, suffers frequent revisions due to the discovery of new species and to the development and gathering of characterization data and morphological information. Morpho-taxonomy helps in the identification of many species. This work presents the macro, micro-morphological, and spectral mass analyses for phenotypic character...

The antimycotic potential of Datura metel (syn. Datura alba Nees.) was investigated in vitro against Ascochyta rabiei, the cause of chickpea blight disease. The pathogen was exposed to various n-hexane concentrations (1, 2, 3 and 4% w/v) of shoot and root extracts of D. metel using poisoning food technique. All the employed concentrations of both root and shoot extracts significantly suppressed...

Morphological and molecular methods were used to identify the statues of an isolate, EFY-36, a taxolproducing endophytic fungus. Based on the morphology of the fungal colony, the mechanism of spore production and the characteristics of the spores, the isolate is Mucor spp. Furthermore, the analysis of 18S ribosome RNA sequence of the isolate was achieved using PCR technology. The results showed...

BACKGROUND Solid organ transplantation patients are at high risk for opportunistic air-borne fungal infections due to using the potent immunosuppressive agents. OBJECTIVES The current study aimed to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate the fungal flora present in the air of Kidney transplant unit of Baqiyatallah hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this prospective study, air samples fro...