Erasmus MC, Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2013 May 23;7(5):e2241. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0002241. Print 2013.
Eumycetoma is a morbid chronic granulomatous subcutaneous fungal disease. Despite high environmental exposure to this fungus in certain regions of the world, only few develop eumycetoma for yet unknown reasons. Animal studies suggest that co-infections skewing the immune system to a Th2-type response enhance eumycetoma susceptibility. Since chronic schistosomiasis results in a strong Th2-type response and since endemic areas for eumycetoma and schistosomiasis do regionally overlap, we performed a serological case-control study to identify an association between eumycetoma and schistosomiasis. Compared to endemic controls, eumycetoma patients were significantly more often sero-positive for schistosomiasis (p = 0.03; odds ratio 3.2, 95% CI 1.18-8.46), but not for toxoplasmosis, an infection inducing a Th1-type response (p = 0.6; odds ratio 1.5, 95% CI 0.58-3.83). Here, we show that schistosomiasis is correlated to susceptibility for a fungal disease for the first time.
芽生菌病是一种病态的慢性肉芽肿性皮下真菌感染。尽管在世界上某些地区人们接触这种真菌的环境很高，但由于某些未知原因，只有少数人会患上芽生菌病。动物研究表明，使免疫系统向 Th2 型反应倾斜的合并感染会增加芽生菌病的易感性。由于慢性血吸虫病会导致强烈的 Th2 型反应，并且芽生菌病和血吸虫病的流行地区存在区域重叠，我们进行了一项血清学病例对照研究，以确定芽生菌病和血吸虫病之间的关联。与流行地区的对照组相比，芽生菌病患者的血吸虫病血清阳性率显著更高（p=0.03；优势比 3.2，95%CI 1.18-8.46），但对诱导 Th1 型反应的弓形虫病的血清阳性率没有差异（p=0.6；优势比 1.5，95%CI 0.58-3.83）。在这里，我们首次表明血吸虫病与真菌感染的易感性有关。
