Molecular Epidemiology and Antifungal Susceptibility of Trichophyton Isolates in Greece: Emergence of Terbinafine-Resistant Trichophytonmentagrophytes Type VIII Locally and Globally.

Maria Siopi,Ioanna Efstathiou,Spyros Pournaras,Konstantinos Theodoropoulos,Joseph Meletiadis

doi:10.3390/jof7060419

Abstract

Trichophyton isolates with reduced susceptibility to antifungals are now increasingly reported worldwide. We therefore studied the molecular epidemiology and the in vitro antifungal susceptibility patterns of Greek Trichophyton isolates over the last 10 years with the newly released EUCAST reference method for dermatophytes. Literature was reviewed to assess the global burden of antifungal resistance in Trichophyton spp. The in vitro susceptibility of 112 Trichophyton spp. molecularly identified clinical isolates (70 T. rubrum, 24 T. mentagrophytes, 12 T. interdigitale and 6 T. tonsurans) was tested against terbinafine, itraconazole, voriconazole and amorolfine (EUCAST E.DEF 11.0). Isolates were genotyped based on the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences and the target gene squalene epoxidase (SQLE) was sequenced for isolates with reduced susceptibility to terbinafine. All T. rubrum, T. interdigitale and T. tonsurans isolates were classified as wild-type (WT) to all antifungals, whereas 9/24 (37.5%) T. mentagrophytes strains displayed elevated terbinafine MICs (0.25–8 mg/L) but not to azoles and amorolfine. All T. interdigitale isolates belonged to ITS Type II, while T. mentagrophytes isolates belonged to ITS Type III* (n = 11), VIII (n = 9) and VII (n = 4). All non-WT T. mentagrophytes isolates belonged to Indian Genotype VIII and harbored Leu393Ser (n = 5) and Phe397Leu (n = 4) SQLE mutations. Terbinafine resistance rates ranged globally from 0–44% for T. rubrum and 0–76% for T. interdigitale/T. mentagrophytes with strong endemicity. High incidence (37.5%) of terbinafine non-WT T. mentagrophytes isolates (all belonging to ITS Type VIII) without cross-resistance to other antifungals was found for the first time in Greece. This finding must alarm for susceptibility testing of dermatophytes at a local scale particularly in non-responding dermatophytoses.

Highlights

Dermatophyte infections impose a considerable economic burden on the healthcare systems since over $800 million/year are spent on their management [2], excluding indirect costs related to unnecessary testing/medical procedures and inappropriate treatment before a diagnosis is established [3]
We described the molecular epidemiology and investigated the in vitro susceptibility profile of Trichophyton spp. isolated over the last 10 years to topical and systematically applied antifungals commonly used for the treatment of dermatophytosis following the recently reported European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST)
The specimens were inoculated on two plates each of Sabouraud’s dextrose agar supplemented with gentamicin and chloramphenicol (SGC2; bioMérieux) and the other containing phenol red and cyclohexamide (DTM; bioMérieux), which were incubated at 30 ◦ C up to four weeks

Summary

Introduction

Dermatophyte infections impose a considerable economic burden on the healthcare systems since over $800 million/year are spent on their management [2], excluding indirect costs related to unnecessary testing/medical procedures and inappropriate treatment before a diagnosis is established [3]. Resistance in dermatophytes and in Trichophyton spp. has recently emerged as a global public health problem [4]. Trichophyton rubrum clinical isolates resistant to terbinafine are sporadically described in the literature [6,7,8,9]. An outbreak of terbinafine-resistant dermatophytosis has been reported in India in 2018 [10]

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Results

Conclusion