Impact of Morphological Sectors on Antifungal Susceptibility Testing and Virulence Studies.

ABSTRACT: Morphological heterogeneity of Aspergillus terreus cultures was observed during continued cultivation of amphotericin B (AMB)-resistant isolates on drug-free medium. Outgrowth leads to the emergence of multiple sectors that might result from increased growth rates at drug-free conditions. We evaluated the differences in AMB susceptibility and virulence between sector subcultures (ATSec), AMB-resistant (ATR) strains, and AMB-susceptible (ATS) strains. By comparing A. terreus AMB-resistant (ATR) strains and A. terreus sector (ATSec) cultures we observed a highly significant reduction of AMB MICs in ATSec (ATR MIC, 2 to 32 ?g/ml; ATSec MIC, 0.12 to 5 ?g/ml). Furthermore, Galleria mellonella survival studies revealed an enhanced virulence of ATSec, which was comparable with that of AMB-sensitive Aspergillus terreus strains (median survival rates for ATS isolates, 72 h; for ATSec isolate ATSec^G1, 84 h; for ATR isolates, 144 h). Our findings clearly demonstrate that spontaneous culture degeneration occurs in A. terreus and, most importantly, crucially impacts drug efficacy and virulence.

SUBMITTER: Jukic E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5700351 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature