• Infection and chemotherapy
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.362-366
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• 2018

Millerozyma farinosa (formerly Pichia farinosa) is halotolerant yeast mainly found in food and ubiquitous in the environment. It was a rare yeast pathogen, but it has recently emerged as a cause of fungemia in immunocompromised patients. Optimal therapy for invasive fungal infection by this pathogen remains unclear. We report a case of catheter related blood stream infection caused by M. farinosa in a 71-year-old patient who recovered successfully after removal of the central venous catheter and treatment with micafungin.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.530-533
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• 2007

It has been well known that the use of Saccharomyces cerevisiae can cause fungemia in critically ill patients and flavone shows an antimicrobial effect on S. cerevisiae. Therefore, we have investigated the activities of thirteen flavone analogues on S. cerevisiae in our studies. Because flavonoids including flavones have antioxidative effects, we try to carry out the activity studies of flavone analogues in vitro and in vivo. In addition, the relationships between the structures of flavone analogues and their biological activities, such as antimicrobial and antioxidative effects, were elucidated using Comparative Molecular Field Analysis calculations. Of the flavone analogues tested here, 3,2'-dihydroxyflavone showed both good antimicrobial and antioxidative activities.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.546-554
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• 2005

We assessed the genetic relations and epidemiological links among bloodstream isolates of Candida albicans, which were obtained from a university hospital over a period of five years. The 54 bloodstream isolates from the 38 patients yielded 14 different karyotypes, 29 different patterns after digestion with SfiI (REAG-S), and 31 different patterns after digestion with BssHII (REAG-B) when analyzed using three different pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing methods. In 11 patients with serial blood stream isolates, all strains from each patient had the same PFGE pattern. The dendrograms for all of the strains revealed that the distribution of similarity values ranged from 0.70 to 1.0 in the REAG-S patterns, and from 0.35 to 1.0 in the REAG-B patterns. Overall, the combination of the three different PFGE methods identified 31 distinct types, reflecting the results obtained using the REAG-B alone different. different Five PFGE types were shared among 22 isolates from 12 patients. These types of strains were more frequently associated with central venous catheter-related fungemia than the other 26 type strains $(92\%\;versus\;31\%;\;P<0.005)$. Of five PFGE types, four isolates were determined to be epidemiologically related: each of these types was primarily from two or three patients who had been hospitalized concurrently within the same intensive care unit. Our results suggest that the REAG-B constitutes perhaps the most useful PFGE method for investigating C. albicans candidemia and also shows that a relatively high proportion of C. albicans candidemia may be associated with exogenous acquisition of clonal strains.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.1494-1499
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• 2017

Oral infection due to Candida albicans is a widely recognized and frequent cause of superficial infections of the oral mucosa (oral candidiasis). Although oral candidiasis is not a life-threatening fungemia, it can cause severe problems in individuals under certain conditions. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding, small RNA molecules, which regulate the expression of other genes by inhibiting the translation of target mRNAs. The present study was designed to identify miRNAs in C. albicans and determine their possible roles in this organism. miRNA-sized small RNAs (msRNAs) were cloned in C. albicans by deep sequencing, and their secondary structures were analyzed. All the cloned msRNAs satisfied conditions required to qualify them as miRNAs. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that two of the most highly expressed C. albicans msRNAs, Ca-363 and Ca-2019, were located in the 3' untranslated region of the corticosteroid-binding protein 1 (CBP1) gene in a reverse orientation. miRNA mimics were transformed into C. albicans to investigate their RNA-inhibitory functions. RNA oligonucleotide-transformed C. albicans was then observed by fluorescent microscopy. Quantitative PCR analysis showed that these msRNAs did not inhibit CBP1 gene expression 4 hr and 8 hr after ectopic miRNA transformation. These results suggest that msRNAs in C. albicans possess an miRNA-triggered RNA interference gene-silencing function, which is distinct from that exhibited by other eukaryotic systems.