Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy.
Infect Genet Evol. 2013 Mar;14:68-72. doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2012.11.012. Epub 2012 Nov 23.
Pneumocystis jirovecii is an opportunistic fungus predominantly reported in immunocompromised individuals, who develop severe interstitial pneumonia (PcP). However, it is known that asymptomatic or mild pulmonary infections, defined as colonization, are widely observed in the general adult population. So far, genetic and epidemiological data of P. jirovecii infections in Italy are rather scarce and limited to defined geographical regions, mainly regarding isolates from HIV-infected patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the polymorphisms at the mtLSU-rRNA and the DHPS loci by the screening and genotyping of a cohort of patients from two major hospitals in Rome (Italy). The study included 263 patients divided into two groups, all enrolled consecutively from January 2006 to December 2010: (i) 38 immunocompromised subjects including 25 HIV-infected; (ii) 225 immunocompetent patients. Sixty-seven out of 263 patients (25.5%) were found positive after PCR amplification of the mtLSU-rRNA gene. Overall, genotyping at mtLSU-rRNA locus revealed that the genotype 2 was the most frequent. Sequences of the DHPS gene were obtained from 21 patients, 9 from immunocompromised patients (6 from HIV infected individuals), 12 from immunocompetent ones. Considering the most common DHPS mutations usually detected at amino acid positions 55 and 57 and potentially related to drug resistance, all samples analyzed showed the wild-type signatures. These are the first data in Italy on prevalence and genotypes of P. jirovecii regarding colonized immunocompetent adults. Further multicenter analyses on P. jirovecii infection will be necessary to better define the specific epidemiology of the disease in the Italian populations.
肺孢子菌是一种机会性真菌,主要在免疫功能低下的个体中报告,这些个体发展为严重的间质性肺炎(PcP)。然而,众所周知,无症状或轻度肺部感染,即定植,在一般成年人群中广泛存在。到目前为止,意大利肺孢子菌感染的遗传和流行病学数据相当有限,仅局限于特定的地理区域,主要是针对艾滋病毒感染患者的分离株。本研究旨在通过对来自罗马两家主要医院的患者队列进行 mtLSU-rRNA 和 DHPS 基因座的筛查和基因分型,评估多态性。该研究包括 263 例患者,分为两组,均于 2006 年 1 月至 2010 年 12 月连续入选:(i)38 例免疫功能低下患者,包括 25 例 HIV 感染者;(ii)225 例免疫功能正常患者。263 例患者中有 67 例(25.5%)经 mtLSU-rRNA 基因 PCR 扩增后呈阳性。总体而言,mtLSU-rRNA 基因座的基因分型显示基因型 2 最为常见。从 21 例患者中获得了 DHPS 基因序列,其中 9 例来自免疫功能低下患者(6 例来自 HIV 感染者),12 例来自免疫功能正常患者。考虑到通常在氨基酸位置 55 和 57 检测到的最常见的 DHPS 突变,这些突变与耐药性有关,所有分析的样本均显示野生型特征。这是意大利关于免疫功能正常的成年定植者肺孢子菌流行率和基因型的首批数据。需要进一步进行多中心分析,以更好地确定意大利人群中该疾病的特定流行病学。