A Model for Trans-Kingdom Pathogenicity in Fonsecaea Agents of Human Chromoblastomycosis.

Gheniffer Fornari,Douglas André Steinmacher,Marisol Dominguez Muro,Israel Henrique Bini,Suelen Silvana Dos Santos,Conceição Maria Pedroso E Silva De Azevedo,Shuwen Deng,Renata Rodrigues Gomes,Mariana Machado Fidelis Do Nascimento,Daiane Rigoni Kestring,Sybren De Hoog,Sandro Rogério De Almeida,Bruna Jacomel Favoreto De Souza Lima,Bruna Da Silva Soley,Lisandra Santos Ferreira-Maba,Cleusa Bona,Edvaldo Da Silva Trindade ,Moisés Batista Da Silva ,Morgana Ferreira Voidaleski ,Germana Dávila Dos Santos ,Rosana Hermínia Scola ,Vânia A Vicente ,Anamélia Lorenzetti Bocca ,Juliana Degenhardt ,Cláudio Guedes Salgado

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2018.02211

Abstract

The fungal genus Fonsecaea comprises etiological agents of human chromoblastomycosis, a chronic implantation skin disease. The current hypothesis is that patients acquire the infection through an injury from plant material. The present study aimed to evaluate a model of infection in plant and animal hosts to understand the parameters of trans-kingdom pathogenicity. Clinical strains of causative agents of chromoblastomycosis (Fonsecaea pedrosoi and Fonsecaea monophora) were compared with a strain of Fonsecaea erecta isolated from a living plant. The clinical strains of F. monophora and F. pedrosoi remained concentrated near the epidermis, whereas F. erecta colonized deeper plant tissues, resembling an endophytic behavior. In an invertebrate infection model with larvae of a beetle, Tenebrio molitor, F. erecta exhibited the lowest survival rates. However, F. pedrosoi produced dark, spherical to ovoidal cells that resembled muriform cells, the invasive form of human chromoblastomycosis confirming the role of muriform cells as a pathogenic adaptation in animal tissues. An immunologic assay in BALB/c mice demonstrated the high virulence of saprobic species in animal models was subsequently controlled via host higher immune response.

Highlights

The fungal genus Fonsecaea comprises several etiologic agents of human chromoblastomycosis, a severely mutilating skin disease
The fungal strains were acquired from the reference collection of Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures (CBS; housed at the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, Utrecht, Netherlands) and Microbiological Collections of Paraná Network (CMRP, Curitiba, Brazil), i.e., F. pedrosoi (CBS 271.37) and F. monophora (CBS 102248), both isolated from human chromoblastomycosis, and the environmental species, F. erecta (CBS 125763) isolated from a living plant (Vicente et al, 2013)
After repeated washings with phosphate buffered saline (PBS), the inocula were adjusted to the concentration tested and the cell viability was determined by plating of the suspensions on Mycosel agar followed by incubation for 7 days at 28 and 37◦C for Fonsecaea species, while the control strains were incubated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 28◦C for 7 days

Summary

Introduction

The fungal genus Fonsecaea comprises several etiologic agents of human chromoblastomycosis, a severely mutilating skin disease. The genus belongs to the family Herpotrichiellaceae, which consists of numerous species potentially causing a wide range of recalcitrant infections. Among these are cerebral and disseminated diseases which if untreated mostly lead to the death of the patient (Najafzadeh et al, 2011; Doymaz et al, 2015; Gomes et al, 2016). The prevalent agents of the disease include Fonsecaea pedrosoi, Fonsecaea monophora, Cladophialophora carrionii (Badali et al, 2008; Doymaz et al, 2015), and Rhinocladiella aquaspersa (Badali et al, 2010; González et al, 2013). Cladophialophora carrionii is found in arid and semi-arid climates (Lavelle, 1980), while Fonsecaea species are endemic to the areas with a warm and humid climate (Najafzadeh et al, 2011)

Methods

Results

Conclusion