Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA), a severe pulmonary complication caused by Aspergillus fumigatus, is considered a complex clinical syndrome with defined serological, pathological radiological and clinical features. The diagnosis of ABPA is often difficult because of several overlapping clinical and laboratory findings shared between asthma with sensitization to A. fumigatus and A...

Humans are continuously exposed to airborne spores of the saprophytic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus. However, in healthy individuals pulmonary host defense mechanisms efficiently eliminate the fungus. In contrast, A. fumigatus causes devastating infections in immunocompromised patients. Host immune responses against A. fumigatus lung infections in immunocompromised conditions have remained large...

Azole antifungals are used not only clinically for fungal infections but also used as agricultural fungicides. Recently, azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus containing a tandem repeat in the promoter region of cyp51A combined with amino acid substitution(s) appears in the environment in Eurasia, especially in several European countries. Although azole fungicides have been used in Japan, espec...

Measurement of IgG antibodies against Aspergillus fumigatus is an important criterion for the diagnosis of aspergilloma, allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, and extrinsic allergic alveolitis. In the present study, we compared IgG antibody analysis against A. fumigatus using 2 widely used automated immunochemistry systems. In a between-laboratory quality control program, good agreement was ...

Elastolytic and elastase inhibitory activities were investigated for 13 strains of Aspergillus fumigatus, three strains of Aspergillus flavus and three strains of Aspergillus niger. Nine of the 13 strains of A. fumigatus and all strains of A. flavus demonstrated elastase activity (more than 1 unit ml(-1)). Six of the 13 strains of A. fumigatus and all strains of A. flavus expressed elastase inh...

Aspergillus fumigatus is a saprophyte fungus, widely spread in a variety of ecologicalniches and the most prevalent aspergilli responsible for human and animal invasiveaspergillosis. The first step to develop novel and efficient therapies is the identificationand understanding of the key tolerance and virulence factors of pathogens. The mainfocus of the present study is to perform the similarit...

Aspergillus fumigatus is a mold that causes severe pulmonary infections. Our knowledge of how A. fumigatus growth is controlled in the respiratory tract is developing, but still limited. Alveolar macrophages, lung resident macrophages, and airway epithelial cells constitute the first lines of defense against inhaled A. fumigatus conidia. Subsequently, neutrophils and inflammatory CCR2+ monocyte...

Infection by Aspergillus fumigatus, which causes the life-threatening disease invasive aspergillosis, begins with the inhalation of conidia that adhere to and germinate in the lung. Previous studies have shown that A. fumigatus conidia express high levels of the negatively charged 9-carbon sugar sialic acid, and that sialic acid appears to mediate the binding of A. fumigatus conidia to basal la...

Alveolar macrophages represent a first-line innate host defense mechanism for clearing inhaled Aspergillus fumigatus from the lungs, yet contradictory data exist as to which alveolar macrophage recognition receptor is critical for innate immunity to A. fumigatus. Acknowledging that the A. fumigatus cell wall contains a high beta-1,3-glucan content, we questioned whether the beta-glucan receptor...

background and purpose: actinomycetes have been discovered as source of antifungal compounds that are currently in clinical use. invasive aspergillosis (ia) due to aspergillus fumigatus has been identified as individual drug-resistant aspergillus spp. to be an emerging pathogen opportunities a global scale. this paper described the antifungal activity of one terrestrial actinomycete against the...