Phialophora verrucosa (P. verrucosa) is a dematiaceous fungus, which may cause multiple human infections such as chromoblastomycosis. Detailed studies of P. verrucosa will be of great benefit to the therapeutic applications of chromoblastomycosis. As a professional service provider with advanced platforms in the field of antifungal drug discovery, Creative Biolabs has won recognition from worldwide customers and scientists. Nowadays, we are pleased to launch and advertise our mature services in the nosogenesis and therapeutic applications of chromoblastomycosis. We focus on the introduction of P. verrucosa here.
Background of Phialophora Verrucosa
P. verrucosa is the type species of genus Phialophora belonging to the family Herpotrichiellaceae (Chaetothyriales) which comprising the ‘black yeasts and relatives’. The genus Phialophora contains more than 40 species and most of them are saprophytes commonly found in soil or on decaying wood. P. verrucosa is a pathogenic, dematiaceous fungus, which has been reported from mutilating human infections such as chromoblastomycosis (a common etiologic agent), disseminated phaeohyphomycosis, and mycetoma (in rare cases). Using restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) to analyse the molecular typing of mitochondrial DNA suggested that P. verrucosa comprises three groups. Besides P. verrucosa, P. americana, P. bubakii, P. europaea, and P. reptans are common clinical pathogens attracting widely medical interests. Notablely, P. verrucosa and P. americana may be synonymous because of the sequence homology.
Fig.1 Scientific classification of P. verrucosa.
Distribution of Phialophora Verrucosa
As a saprophytic fungus, P. verrucosa is mainly distributed on rotting wood, soil, wasp nests, and plant debris, where it produces its conidia from phialides with conspicuous darkened collarettes. P. verrucosa is widespread around the world and has been found in Asia, Africa, Australia, North and South America, and Europe. The P. verrucosa caused intractable chromoblastomycosis are commonly found in tropical and subtropical areas with the humid climate. In human, most P. verrucosa strains available in culture collections are derived from human mycoses.
Morphological Features of Phialophora Verrucosa
The morphology of P. verrucosa can be summarized as follows:
Pathogenesis of P. verrucosa
Numerous studies have revealed that P. verrucosa is one of most common pathogenic agents for chromoblastomycosis. Moreover, P. verrucosa is a much rarer cause of subcutaneous phaeohyphomycosis, and other infections such as mycetoma and endophthalmitis. All of these diseases present slow progression of symptoms and have the potential to become chronic. The symptoms are characterized by crusted, warty lesions on the face, hands, shin, and sole of the foot. Despite low pathogenicity, P. verrucosa can also cause cutaneous infections, prosthetic valve endocarditis, and mycotic keratitis in rare cases. It is alert that both healthy individuals and immunocompromised patients can be infected with P. verrucosa and the immunocompromised individuals, such as transplant recipients and those with AIDS or with chronic use of antibiotics, are relatively limited.
Treatment of Phialophora Verrucosa Infections
In the clinic, antifungal drugs are typically used to treat infections caused by P. verrucosa. Amphotericin B (AmB) is used occasionally, because it is cardiotoxic and unsuitable for long-term therapy.
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