Trichosporon asahii explained

Trichosporon asahii is a non-Candida yeast that has been reported to cause infections in immunocompromised patients.^[1] T. asahii is the most prominent human pathogen in its genus, causing more than half of all Trichosporon infections. First discovered and named in 1929,^[2] The currently accepted nomenclature of T. asahii was validated in 1994.^[3]

Disease

The clinical manifestations of T. asahii infection are non-specific and vary depending on the site of infection. The most common types of infection were urinary tract infections, fungemia, and disseminated infection. Cutaneous infections have also been reported.^[4]

Identification and culture

T. asahii grows readily on routine laboratory media, producing white, yellow, or cream, yeast-like colonies on Sabouraud dextrose agar.^[5] This fungus has a rapid growth rate and colonies mature in 5 days. When grown on cornmeal-Tween 80 agar, true hyphae, pseudohyphae, and blastoconidia can be seen under microscopic examination. Arthroconidia can be observed in older cultures. This fungus is able to hydrolyze urea through the production of urease.

Treatment

ESCMID/ECMM guidelines recommend the use of voriconazole for the treatment of invasive T. asahii infections.^[6] Patients have also been treated with amphotericin B and triazole therapy.

Notes and References

1. Li . Haitao . Guo . Meihong . Wang . Congmin . Li . Yibo . Fernandez . Anne Marie . Ferraro . Thomas N. . Yang . Rongya . Chen . Yong . 2020 . Epidemiological study of Trichosporon asahii infections over the past 23 years . Epidemiology and Infection . en . 148 . e169 . 10.1017/S0950268820001624 . 0950-2688 . 7439294 . 32703332.
2. Akagi . S . 1929 . Uber eine neue mykotische Hautkrankheit . Jpn J Dermatol Urol . 29 . 53–55.
3. Sugita . T . Nishikawa . A . Shinoda . T . Mar 1994 . Reclassification of Trichosporon cutaneum by DNA Relatedness By the Spectrophotometric Method and the Chemiluminometric Method . The Journal of General and Applied Microbiology . 40 . 5 . 397–408. 10.2323/jgam.40.397 .
4. Schnur . Jack . Hawco . Colton . Fonarov . Ilya . Casadesus . Damian . Jun 2021 . Rare cutaneous manifestation of Trichosporon asahii . BMJ Case Reports . en . 14 . 6 . e243659 . 10.1136/bcr-2021-243659 . 1757-790X . 8212178 . 34140332.
5. Book: Sciortino, Carmen V. . Atlas of clinically important fungi . 2017 . John Wiley & Sons, Inc . 978-1-119-06966-9 . Hoboken, New Jersey . 58–59.
6. Arendrup . M.C. . Boekhout . T. . Akova . M. . Meis . J.F. . Cornely . O.A. . Lortholary . O. . Apr 2014 . ESCMID and ECMM joint clinical guidelines for the diagnosis and management of rare invasive yeast infections . Clinical Microbiology and Infection . en . 20 . 76–98 . 10.1111/1469-0691.12360. 24102785 . free .