Microsatellite Typing of Aspergillus flavus Strains in a Tunisian Onco-hematology Unit

• Published in: Mycopathologia (1975) Vol. 181; no. 3-4; pp. 175 - 184
• Main Authors: Gheith, Soukeina, Saghrouni, Fatma, Normand, Anne-Cécile, Bannour, Wadiaa, Khelif, Abderrahim, Piarroux, Renaud, Ben Said, Moncef, Njah, Mansour, Ranque, Stéphane
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.04.2016; Springer; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: Aspergillosis - epidemiology; Aspergillosis - microbiology; Aspergillosis - transmission; Aspergillus flavus; Aspergillus flavus - genetics; Aspergillus flavus - isolation & purification; Base Sequence; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Cloning; Cross Infection - microbiology; Epidemiology; Eukaryotic Microbiology; Genotype; Hematology; Hospital Units; Human health and pathology; Humans; Infectious diseases; Leukemia; Life Sciences; Medical Microbiology; Microbial Ecology; Microbiology; Microsatellite Repeats - genetics; Molecular Epidemiology; Molecular Typing - methods; Parasitology; Plant Sciences; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization; Tunisia - epidemiology; France; Tunisia; Germany; Onco-hematology; Invasive aspergillosis; Microsatellite markers; Tunisia; Aspergillus flavus
• ISSN: 0301-486X; 1573-0832
• DOI: 10.1007/s11046-015-9962-6

Aspergillus flavus is the most common species associated with invasive aspergillosis in Tunisia. The molecular epidemiology of the species is poorly documented. We used five highly discriminative microsatellite markers for the genotyping of clinical and hospital environmental A. flavus strains to assess whether IA could be hospital-acquired in the onco-hematology unit of the Farhat Hached teaching hospital of Sousse, Tunisia. The genotyping of 18 clinical isolates, collected from sputa of 17 acute leukemia patients, and 81 isolates, collected in these patients’ hospital environment and food, identified 57 isolates that were grouped in 10 clones, each of them including 2–17 isolates. The remaining 42 isolates showed a unique genotype. Two main transmission scenarios were observed: (1) the same clone was isolated from different patients; (2) the same clone was isolated from a patient, its hospital environment and/or food. These findings strongly suggest the occurrence of hospital-acquired A. flavus infection/colonization in the investigated onco-hematology unit.