The virulence of Cryptococcus neoformans isolates with high and low extracellular proteolytic activity was investigated in mice. No consistent relationship between proteolytic activity and virulence was observed, but isolates derived from one strain were shown to elicit different inflammatory responses.

No studies have evaluated the efficacy of culturing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for fungi. Because of the facts that the most common fungi responsible for meningitis grow well in media utilized for routine bacterial cultures and that cryptococcal antigen tests are commonly ordered, the efficacy of routinely performing fungal cultures specifically to recover fungi has been questioned. We examined ...

Cryptococcus neoformans is a basidiomycetous, yeast-like fungus which, following inhalation from an environmental source, causes respiratory and neurological disease in humans and animals. Though the ecology of C. neoformans is poorly understood, recent observations provide clues about its life-cycle in nature. Two biotypes of C. neoformans are recognised, C. neoformans var. neoformans (serotyp...

A protocol for intact DNA preparation from the basidiomycetous yeast Cryptococcus neoformans has been developed and applied to karyotyping C. neoformans isolates displaying different degrees of capsule formation. A total of 46 strains have been analyzed: 23 (50%) isolated from environmental samples (pigeon droppings), all of them belonging to C. neoformans var. neoformans; and 23 (50%) from cli...

To gain a more detailed picture of cryptococcosis in Thailand, a retrospective study of 498 C. neoformans and C. gattii isolates has been conducted. Among these, 386, 83 and 29 strains were from clinical, environmental and veterinary sources, respectively. A total of 485 C. neoformans and 13 C. gattii strains were studied. The majority of the strains (68.9%) were isolated from males (mean age o...

The antigenic formulas of 34 species in the genus Cryptococcus were determined by using type strains and eight factor sera prepared from adsorption experiments with Cryptococcus neoformans serotypes. These antigenic factors were shared by 19 species. The strains used could be divided into eight serological groups. The patterns of groups 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 were the same as the patterns of C. neof...

Enhanced control of species of Cryptococcus, non-fermentative yeast pathogens, was achieved by chemosensitization through co-application of certain compounds with a conventional antimicrobial drug. The species of Cryptococcus tested showed higher sensitivity to mitochondrial respiratory chain (MRC) inhibition compared to species of Candida. This higher sensitivity results from the inability of ...

Cryptococcosis caused by Cryptococcus neoformans is the second most common fungal opportunistic pathogen and a life-threatening infection with serious clinical manifestations especially in HIV/AIDS and other immunocompromised patients. In Nigeria, HIV/AIDS infection has reached an alarming level. Despite this, information on the presence of this fungus in clinical and environmental samples is v...

In this study, we evaluated several techniques for the detection of the yeast form of Cryptococcus in decaying wood and measured the viability of these fungi in environmental samples stored in the laboratory. Samples were collected from a tree known to be positive for Cryptococcus and were each inoculated on 10 Niger seed agar (NSA) plates. The conventional technique (CT) yielded a greater numb...

Cryptococcus neoformans is a fungus that causes the majority of fatal cryptococcal meningitis cases worldwide. This pathogen is capable of assuming different morphotypes: yeast, pseudohypha, and hypha. The yeast form is the most common cell type observed clinically. The hyphal and pseudohyphal forms are rarely observed in the clinical setting and are considered attenuated in virulence. However,...