Cryptococcus neoformans

Cryptococcus neoformans
Cryptococcus neoformans
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Fungi
Phylum: Basidiomycota
Class: Tremellomycetes
Order: Tremellales
Family: Tremellaceae
Genus: Cryptococcus
Species: Cryptococcus neoformans
Binomial name
Cryptococcus neoformans
(San Felice) Vuill.

Cryptococcus neoformans is an encapsulated yeast[1] and an obligate aerobe[2] that can live in both plants and animals. Its teleomorph is Filobasidiella neoformans, a filamentous fungus belonging to the class Tremellomycetes. It is often found in bird excrement. Cryptococcus neoformans is an encapsulated fungal organism and it can cause disease in apparently immunocompetent, as well as immunocompromised, hosts.[3]

Classification

Cryptococcus neoformans has undergone numerous nomenclature revisions since its first description in 1894. For instance, it once contained two varieties (var.): C. neoformans var. neoformans and C. neoformans var. grubii. A third variety, C. neoformans var. gattii, was defined as a distinct species, Cryptococcus gattii. The most recent classification system divides organisms into seven species.[4] C. neoformans refers to C. neoformans var. grubii. A new species name, Cryptococcus deneoformans, is used for the former C. neoformans var. neoformans. C. gattii is divided into five species.

Characteristics

C. neoformans stained by Gram stain

C. neoformans grows as a yeast (unicellular) and replicates by budding. It makes hyphae during mating, and eventually creates basidiospores at the end of the hyphae before producing spores. Under host-relevant conditions, including low glucose, serum, 5% carbon dioxide, and low iron, among others, the cells produce a characteristic polysaccharide capsule.[5] The recognition of C. neoformans in Gram-stained smears of purulent exudates may be hampered by the presence of the large gelatinous capsule which apparently prevents definitive staining of the yeast-like cells. In such stained preparations, it may appear either as round cells with Gram-positive granular inclusions impressed upon a pale lavender cytoplasmic background or as Gram-negative lipoid bodies.[6] When grown as a yeast, C. neoformans has a prominent capsule composed mostly of polysaccharides. Under the microscope, the India ink stain is used for easy visualization of the capsule in cerebral spinal fluid.[7] The particles of ink pigment do not enter the capsule that surrounds the spherical yeast cell, resulting in a zone of clearance or "halo" around the cells. This allows for quick and easy identification of C. neoformans. Unusual morphological forms are rarely seen.[8] For identification in tissue, mucicarmine stain provides specific staining of polysaccharide cell wall in C. neoformans. Cryptococcal antigen from cerebrospinal fluid is thought to be the best test for diagnosis of cryptococcal meningitis in terms of sensitivity, though it might be unreliable in HIV-positive patients.[9]

The first genome sequence for a strain of C. neoformans (var. neoformans; now C. deneoformans) was published in 2005.[10]

Studies suggest that colonies of C. neoformans and related fungi growing on the ruins of the melted down reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant may be able to use the energy of radiation for "radiotrophic" growth.[11]

Pathology

Infection with C. neoformans is termed cryptococcosis. Most infections with C. neoformans occur in the lungs.[12] However, fungal meningitis and encephalitis, especially as a secondary infection for AIDS patients, are often caused by C. neoformans, making it a particularly dangerous fungus. Infections with this fungus are rare in those with fully functioning immune systems.[13] So, C. neoformans is sometimes referred to as an opportunistic fungus.[13] It is a facultative intracellular pathogen[14] that can utilize host phagocytes to spread within the body.[15][16] Cryptococcus neoformans was the first intracellular pathogen for which the non-lytic escape process termed vomocytosis was observed.[17][18] It has been speculated that this ability to manipulate host cells results from environmental selective pressure by amoebae, a hypothesis first proposed by Arturo Casadevall under the term "accidental virulence".[19]

In human infection, C. neoformans is spread by inhalation of aerosolized basidiospores, and can disseminate to the central nervous system, where it can cause meningoencephalitis.[20] In the lungs, C. neoformans cells are phagocytosed by alveolar macrophages.[21] Macrophages produce oxidative and nitrosative agents, creating a hostile environment, to kill invading pathogens.[22] However, some C. neoformans cells can survive intracellularly in macrophages.[21] Intracellular survival appears to be the basis for latency, disseminated disease, and resistance to eradication by antifungal agents. One mechanism by which C. neoformans survives the hostile intracellular environment of the macrophage involves upregulation of expression of genes involved in responses to oxidative stress.[21]

Traversal of the blood–brain barrier by C. neoformans plays a key role in meningitis pathogenesis.[23] However, precise mechanisms by which it passes the blood-brain barrier are still unknown; one recent study in rats suggested an important role of secreted serine proteases.[24] The metalloprotease Mpr1 has been demonstrated to be critical in blood-brain barrier penetration.[25]

Meiosis (sexual reproduction), another possible survival factor for intracellular C. neoformans

The vast majority of environmental and clinical isolates of C. neoformans are mating type alpha. Filaments of mating type alpha have haploid nuclei ordinarily, but these can undergo a process of diploidization (perhaps by endoduplication or stimulated nuclear fusion) to form diploid cells termed blastospores. The diploid nuclei of blastospores are able to undergo meiosis, including recombination, to form haploid basidiospores that can then be dispersed.[26] This process is referred to as monokaryotic fruiting. Required for this process is a gene designated dmc1, a conserved homologue of genes recA in bacteria, and rad51 in eukaryotes (see articles recA and rad51). Dmc1 mediates homologous chromosome pairing during meiosis and repair of double-strand breaks in DNA.[27] One benefit of meiosis in C. neoformans could be to promote DNA repair in the DNA-damaging environment caused by the oxidative and nitrosative agents produced in macrophages.[26] Thus, C. neoformans can undergo a meiotic process, monokaryotic fruiting, that may promote recombinational repair in the oxidative, DNA-damaging environment of the host macrophage, and this may contribute to its virulence.

Serious Complications

Infection starts in lungs, disseminates via blood to meninges and then to other parts of the body. Capsule inhibits phagocytosis. Can cause a systemic infection, including fatal meningitis known as meningoencephalitis in normal, diabetic and immunocompromised hosts. The infection from C. neoformans in the brain can be fatal if untreated . CNS (central nervous system) infection may also be present as a brain abcess known as cryptococcomas, subdural effusion, dementia, isolated cranial nerve lesion, spinal cord lesion, and ischemic stroke. If cryptococcal meningitis occurs, mortality rate is between 10-30%.[28]

Treatment

C. neoformans seen in the lung of a patient with AIDS: The inner capsule of the organism stains red in this photomicrograph.

Cryptococcosis that does not affect the central nervous system can be treated with fluconazole alone.

Cryptococcal meningitis should be treated for two weeks with intravenous amphotericin B 0.7–1.0 mg/kg/day and oral flucytosine 100 mg/kg/day (or intravenous flucytosine 75 mg/kg/day if the patient is unable to swallow). This should then be followed by oral fluconazole 400–800 mg daily for ten weeks[29] and then 200 mg daily for at least one year and until the patient's CD4 count is above 200 cells/mcl.[30][31] Flucytosine is a generic, off-patent medicine. However, a market failure exists, with a two-week cost of flucytosine therapy being about $10,000. As a result, flucytosine is currently universally unavailable in low- and middle-income countries. In 1970, flucytosine was available in Africa.[32]

Intravenous ambisome 4 (mg/kg)/day may be used but is not superior; its main use is in patients who do not tolerate amphotericin B. The dose of 200 mg/kg/day for flucytosine is not more effective, is associated with more side effects and should not be used.

In Africa, oral fluconazole at a rate of 200 mg daily is often used. However, this does not result in cure, because it merely suppresses the fungus and does not kill it; viable fungus can continue to be grown from cerebrospinal fluid of patients not having taken fluconazole for many months. An increased dose of 400 mg daily does not improve outcomes,[33] but prospective studies from Uganda and Malawi reported that higher doses of 1200 mg per day have more fungicidal activity.[34] The outcomes with fluconazole monotherapy have 30% worse survival than amphotericin-based therapies, in a recent systematic review.[35]

References

  1. ↑ "What Makes Cryptococcus neoformans a Pathogen? - Volume 4, Number 1—March 1998 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC". wwwnc.cdc.gov. Retrieved 2015-11-18.
  2. ↑ Ingavale, Susham S.; Chang, Yun C.; Lee, Hyeseung; McClelland, Carol M.; Leong, Madeline L.; Kwon-Chung, Kyung J. (2008-09-01). "Importance of Mitochondria in Survival of Cryptococcus neoformans Under Low Oxygen Conditions and Tolerance to Cobalt Chloride". PLoS Pathogens. 4 (9): e1000155. ISSN 1553-7366. PMC 2528940 Freely accessible. PMID 18802457. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1000155.
  3. ↑ "What Makes Cryptococcus neoformans a Pathogen? - Volume 4, Number 1—March 1998 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC". wwwnc.cdc.gov. Retrieved 2017-04-18
  4. ↑ Hagen, Ferry; Khayhan, Kantarawee; Theelen, Bart; Kolecka, Anna; Polacheck, Itzhack; Sionov, Edward; Falk, Rama; Parnmen, Sittiporn; Lumbsch, H. Thorsten (2015-05-01). "Recognition of seven species in the Cryptococcus gattii/Cryptococcus neoformans species complex". Fungal genetics and biology: FG & B. 78: 16–48. ISSN 1096-0937. PMID 25721988. doi:10.1016/j.fgb.2015.02.009.
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ Bottone, E J (1980). "Cryptococcus neoformans: pitfalls in diagnosis through evaluation of gram-stained smears of purulent exudates.". Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 12: 790–1. PMC 273699 Freely accessible. PMID 6171578.
  7. ↑ Zerpa, R; Huicho, L; Guillén, A (September 1996). "Modified India ink preparation for Cryptococcus neoformans in cerebrospinal fluid specimens." (PDF). Journal of clinical microbiology. 34 (9): 2290–1. PMC 229234 Freely accessible. PMID 8862601.
  8. ↑ Shashikala; Kanungo, R; Srinivasan, S; Mathew, R; Kannan, M (Jul–Sep 2004). "Unusual morphological forms of Cryptococcus neoformans in cerebrospinal fluid.". Indian journal of medical microbiology. 22 (3): 188–90. PMID 17642731.
  9. ↑ Antinori, Spinello; Radice, Anna; Galimberti, Laura; Magni, Carlo; Fasan, Marco; Parravicini, Carlo (November 2005). "The role of cryptococcal antigen assay in diagnosis and monitoring of cryptococcal meningitis.". Journal of clinical microbiology. 43 (11): 5828–9. PMC 1287839 Freely accessible. PMID 16272534. doi:10.1128/JCM.43.11.5828-5829.2005.
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  13. 1 2 What Makes Cryptococcus neoformans a Pathogen?, Kent L. Buchanan and Juneann W. Murphy University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
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  18. ↑ Ma, H; Croudace, JE; Lammas, DA; May, RC (7 November 2006). "Expulsion of live pathogenic yeast by macrophages.". Current Biology. 16 (21): 2156–60. PMID 17084701. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2006.09.032.
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  26. 1 2 Lin X, Hull CM, Heitman J (2005). "Sexual reproduction between partners of the same mating type in Cryptococcus neoformans". Nature. 434 (7036): 1017–1021. PMID 15846346. doi:10.1038/nature03448.
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