Fusarium spp. is able to grow and invade healthy human nails as a single source of nutrients.

Abstract

Onychomycosis caused by Fusarium spp. is emerging, but some factors associated with its development remain unclear, such as whether this genus is keratinolytic. The main aim of the present study was to evaluate the ability of Fusarium to use the human nail as a single source of nutrients. We also performed an epidemiological study and antifungal susceptibility testing of Fusarium spp. that were isolated from patients with onychomycosis. The epidemiological study showed that Fusarium species accounted for 12.4 % of onychomycosis cases, and it was the most common among nondermatophyte molds. The most frequent species identified were F. oxysporum (36.5 %), F. solani (31.8 %), and F. subglutinans (8.3 %). Fluconazole was not active against Fusarium spp., and the response to terbinafine varied according to species. Fusarium was able to grow in vitro without the addition of nutrients and invade healthy nails. Thus, we found that Fusarium uses keratin as a single source of nutrients, and the model proposed herein may be useful for future studies on the pathogenesis of onychomycosis.