Analysis of volatile fingerprints for monitoring anti-fungal efficacy against the primary and opportunistic pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus.

The aims of this study were to use qualitative volatile fingerprints obtained using a hybrid sensor array system to screen anti-fungals for controlling the important lung infecting fungus, Aspergillus fumigatus, especially in immunocompromised patients. SIFT-MS was also used to try and identify key volatiles produced by A. fumigatus. Initial studies were carried out to identify the ED(50) and ED(90) (effective dose) for inhibiting growth of A. fumigatus using three anti-fungal compounds, benomyl, tebuconazole and fluconazole. Subsequent studies involved inoculation of malt extract agar plates with spores of A. fumigatus (25 and 37°C) over periods of 24-72 h to examine the headspace volatile fingerprints generated from the sample treatments using the hybrid sensor array system to compare controls and ED(50)/ED(90) concentrations. The sensor responses showed discrimination between treatments after 48-h incubation when benomyl and tebuconazole were used against A. fumigatus at 37°C using Principal Components Analysis and Cluster Analysis. SIFT-MS analysis showed that methyl pentadiene, ethanol, isoprene and methanol were key biomarker volatiles produced by A. fumigatus in the presence of anti-fungal compounds. This may also be a good approach for the development of rapid screening of anti-microbial compounds and potentially useful for monitoring the possible build up of resistance to specific drug types. Volatile fingerprints produced by patient samples could also be used to evaluate whether lung infections are caused by bacteria or specific fungi to facilitate early diagnosis and enable the right drug treatment to be prescribed.