Comparative virulence of Candida auris with Candida haemulonii,Candida glabrata and Candida albicans in a murine model |
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| Authors: | Hamed Fakhim Afsane Vaezi Eric Dannaoui Anuradha Chowdhary Davood Nasiry Leila Faeli Jacques F. Meis Hamid Badali |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, Faculty of Medicine, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran;2. Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran;3. Student Research Committee, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran;4. Department of Medical Mycology/Invasive Fungi Research Center, School of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran;5. Unité de Parasitologie‐Mycologie, Service de Microbiologie, Faculté de Médecine, APHP, H?pital Européen Georges Pompidou, Université Paris‐Descartes, Paris, France;6. Department of Medical Mycology, Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, University of Delhi, Delhi, India;7. Department of Biology and Anatomical Sciences/Student Research Committee, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran;8. Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, ECMM Excellence Center for Medical Mycology, Canisius‐Wilhelmina Hospital, Nijmegen, The Netherlands;9. Centre of Expertise in Mycology Radboudumc/CWZ Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | The incidence of invasive fungal infections (IFIs) caused by uncommon Candida species with diverse virulence and susceptibility profiles has increased in recent years. Due to scarce clinical and experimental data on the pathogenicity of Candida auris, the aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the virulence of two rare clinically relevant species, C. auris and Candida haemulonii with Candida glabrata and Candida albicans in an immunocompetent murine model of disseminated infection. Immunocompetent ICR female mice were infected with three inoculum sizes (1 × 105, 1 × 106 and 1 × 107 CFU/mouse) of two C. auris strains and one isolate of C. haemulonii, C. glabrata and C. albicans. Tissue burden on days 5 and 10 postchallenge and mortality rate were used as virulence markers. A high virulence was found for C. albicans, followed by C. auris, C. glabrata and C. haemulonii, respectively. Candida albicans showed high virulence with a medium survival time of 9.5 days for mice infected with 1 × 107 CFU/mouse. For inocula at 1 × 106 and 1 × 107 CFU/mouse, there were significant differences in fungal burden at day 10 between C. albicans, C. auris and C. glabrata isolates compared with C. haemulonii (P < .0001). Overall, no significant differences between C. albicans with C. auris and C. glabrata were observed in mice infected with three different inocula (P > .05). In general, the highest fungal load of all isolates was detected in kidney followed by spleen, liver and lung tested with three different inocula on the two different experimental days. Histopathological examination revealed the abundant presence of yeast cells with pseudohyphae for C. albicans and only yeast cells for C. auris, C. glabrata and C. haemulonii, in all the kidney tissue samples. In conclusion, C. albicans is a highly virulent opportunistic fungus, as the clinical and experimental data demonstrate, and also our results demonstrate a low virulence of C. haemulonii in immunocompetent animals. Altogether, this study highlights the pathogenic potential of C. auris. |
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| Keywords: |
Candida auris
disseminated candidiasis murine model pathogenicity survival study tissue burden |
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