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Fusarium spp. is able to grow and invade healthy human nails as a single source of nutrients

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Abstract

Onychomycosis caused by Fusarium spp. is emerging, but some factors associated with its development remain unclear, such as whether this genus is keratinolytic. The main aim of the present study was to evaluate the ability of Fusarium to use the human nail as a single source of nutrients. We also performed an epidemiological study and antifungal susceptibility testing of Fusarium spp. that were isolated from patients with onychomycosis. The epidemiological study showed that Fusarium species accounted for 12.4 % of onychomycosis cases, and it was the most common among nondermatophyte molds. The most frequent species identified were F. oxysporum (36.5 %), F. solani (31.8 %), and F. subglutinans (8.3 %). Fluconazole was not active against Fusarium spp., and the response to terbinafine varied according to species. Fusarium was able to grow in vitro without the addition of nutrients and invade healthy nails. Thus, we found that Fusarium uses keratin as a single source of nutrients, and the model proposed herein may be useful for future studies on the pathogenesis of onychomycosis.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by CAPES and CNPq.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Research Ethics Committee of UEM, approved with judgment number 615.643/2014, and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. For this type of study, formal consent is not required.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Mycology Laboratory, Departamento de Análises Clínicas e Biomedicina da Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, PR, Brazil

    J. Galletti, M. Negri, É. S. Kioshima-Cotica & T. I. E. Svidzinski

  2. Bioscience and Physiopathology Postgraduate Program, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, PR, Brazil

    J. Galletti, É. S. Kioshima-Cotica & T. I. E. Svidzinski

  3. Department of Design and Fashion, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, PR, Brazil

    F. L. Grassi

  4. Division of Medical Mycology, Teaching and Research Laboratory in Clinical Analysis, Department of Clinical Analysis, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Av. Colombo, 5790, 87020-900, Maringá, PR, Brazil

    M. Negri

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  1. J. Galletti
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  2. M. Negri
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  3. F. L. Grassi
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  5. T. I. E. Svidzinski
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Correspondence to M. Negri.

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Galletti, J., Negri, M., Grassi, F.L. et al. Fusarium spp. is able to grow and invade healthy human nails as a single source of nutrients. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 34, 1767–1772 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-015-2410-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-015-2410-1

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