Apophysomyces Elegans

Mucormycosis, an angioinvasive infection caused by the ubiquitous filamentous fungi of the order Mucorales and class Mucormycetes. Apophysomyces elegans (A. elegans) is one of the causative agents of mucormycosis. It causes rare but fatal outcomes. Despite that the infections are managed with surgical debridement followed by antifungal treatment, the resistance and toxicity issues have limited the use of existing antifungal agents, making it urgent to discover alternative treatments. As a well-trusted drug development partner staffed with a dedicated team of senior scientists, Creative Biolabs is here to help assist in your preclinical antifungal drug discovery and development projects.

Mucormycosis Caused by A.elegans

A. elegans has been a rather infrequent causative agent of mucormycosis compared to species of the genera Rhizopus, Absidia, and Rhizomucor. However, this fungus has increasingly been isolated from patients in tropical and subtropical climates over the last two decades. Patients from countries such as India, the southern USA, Australia, and Mexico have been documented. A. elegans was once believed to cause only cutaneous, subcutaneous, and soft tissue infections following trauma, burns, or invasive procedures in apparently healthy hosts, but it has been implicated in serious deep-seated infections (rhino-orbito-cerebral and renal mucormycosis) in recent years.

Fig.1 Lactophenol cotton blue mount showing dark, thin-walled sporangiophore of A. elegans and champagne glass shaped apophysis (x400). (Biswas, 2015)

Susceptibility of A. elegans to Antifungal Drugs

Chakrabarti et al. (2010) reported the in vitro susceptibility testing of A. elegans to different antifungals. Amphotericin B displayed the best in vitro activity against the majority of zygomycetes, including A. elegans. However, limitations of amphotericin B exists, such as the toxicity. In brief, the number of therapeutic options against A. elegans is quite limited and the susceptibility is varied. As a result, there continues to be a need for developing new treatment strategies for mucormycosis caused by A. elegans.

Features of our Services

As one of the world’s leading contract research company, Creative Biolabs offers comprehensive solutions to facilitate your antifungal drug discovery with high efficiency. Our wide spectrum of services covers target identification and validation, Hit identification, Hit to lead, Lead optimization, and IND enabling. Meanwhile, we can custom-design the studies to meet all of your particular research needs. With years of experience in this field, we provide services that are further characterized by:

• High quality – robust, efficient processes combined with quality systems
• Expertise – scientists and staff with profound expertise and hands-on experience
• Versatile – a wide range of fungal diseases, pathogens, and potential drug targets
• Flexibility – customized study designs to meet your specific needs

Other fungi that are implicated in mucormycosis include:

• Rhizopus Oryzae
• Rhizopus Microsporus
• Lichtheimia Corymbifera
• Lichtheimia Ramosa
• Rhizomucor Pusillus
• Mucor Circinelloides
• Saksenaea Vasiformis
• Cunninghamella Bertholletiae

If you are interested in our services, please contact us or send us an inquiry.

References

1. Chakrabarti, A.; et al. Apophysomyces elegans: epidemiology, amplified fragment length polymorphism typing, and in vitro antifungal susceptibility pattern. Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 2010, 48(12):4580-4585.
2. Biswas, D.; et al. Amphotericin B resistant apophysomyces elegans causing rhino-oculo-cerebral mucormycosis in an immunocompetent host. J Clin Diagn Res. 2015, 9(8):DD01-DD02.

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