Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease characterized by synovial membrane inflammation and joint cartilage destruction. Abatacept is a biologic agent that blocks the costimulation signals, preventing antigen presentation and proliferation of T lymphocytes. It is approved for the treatment of patients with RA. Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) is an infectious disease complicati...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) is a chronic fungal infection that caused by P. jirovecii. Disease is more prevalent among the HIV-infected patients. The colonization of pneumocystis in human respiratory system is associated with the airway inflammation and obstruction. The current study was conducted to identify the prevalence of P. jirovecii among the patients...

We investigated Pneumocystis jirovecii dihydropteroate synthase (DHPS) and dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) genes for mutations in 25 Chinese HIV-infected patients with P. jirovecii pneumonia. We identified DHPS mutations in 3 (12%) patients and DHFR mutations in 1 (4%) patient. The prevalence of DHPS and DHFR mutations in China remains low, as it does in other developing countries.

Pneumocystis jirovecii colonization has been associated with non-acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) pulmonary comorbidity. We used spirometry to measure pulmonary function and analyzed oral wash specimens by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR), targeting the large mitochondrial ribosomal subunit. For sensitivity control, a blinded subsample was subjected to touch-down PCRs, tar...

Pneumocystis jirovecii infection causes fulminant interstitial pneumonia (Pneumocystis pneumonia, PCP) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who are receiving biological and/or nonbiological antirheumatic drugs. Recently, we encountered a PCP outbreak among RA outpatients at our institution. Hospital-acquired, person-to-person transmission appears to be the most likely mode of this cluster...

UNLABELLED Pneumocystis species are fungal parasites of mammal lungs showing host specificity. Pneumocystis jirovecii colonizes humans and causes severe pneumonia in immunosuppressed individuals. In the absence of in vitro cultures, the life cycle of these fungi remains poorly known. Sexual reproduction probably occurs, but the system of this process and the mating type (MAT) genes involved are...

UNLABELLED Although Pneumocystis jirovecii is a well-known and serious pathogen, all previous attempts to isolate, cultivate, and propagate this fungus have failed. This serious challenge in microbiology was addressed in the present study. We examined whether P. jirovecii could be cultured in a permanent three-dimensional air-liquid interface culture system formed by CuFi-8 cells, a differentia...

A multiplex PCR assay for the simultaneous detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Pneumocystis jirovecii was developed using IS6110-based detection for M. tuberculosis and mitochondrial large-subunit (mtLSU) rRNA gene detection for P. jirovecii. Ninety-five pulmonary blinded samples were examined using the developed multiplex PCR assay, and the results were compared with those obtained by ...

We compared the RealCycler® PJIR kit (Progenie Molecular), available in Europe, to an in-house real-time PCR assay for the diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii infections. Excellent agreement was found (concordance rate, 97.4%; Cohen's kappa, 0.918>0.8) showing that this commercial assay represents an alternative method for the diagnosis of P. jirovecii infections.