Clinico-laboratory findings of Malassezia folliculitis in Indonesia: A multicentre study.

BACKGROUND: Malassezia folliculitis (MF) is a humid-favoured fungal skin disease caused by Malassezia species. Inaccurate treatments, changes in skin flora and disease exacerbation are often occurred due to oversights in the diagnosis. Several diagnostic methods are established for MF. OBJECTIVE: To identify clinico-laboratory findings of Malassezia folliculitis in Indonesia. METHODS: The study was conducted from January 2014 to December 2018 in seven referral teaching hospitals. Medical records of MF-diagnosed patients were obtained and analysed using the binomial test, chi-square test and Cohen's Kappa coefficient in SPSS 26.0. RESULTS: A total of 353 cases of MF were identified in seven referral teaching hospitals in Indonesia, 66.3% of which were males and 33.7% were females, dominated by the 17-25 years old group (44.5%). Itchy sensation (83.9%) was a major subjective complaint. Lesions were majorly found on the trunk-chest, back and shoulder (68.3%), while the clinical manifestation are mostly follicular papule-pustular lesions (62.1%). Patients were 87.4% positive by KOH examination (modified Jacinto Jamora's criteria) and 69.1% positive by Wood's lamp. Generally, sex, age, subjective complaint, lesion location, clinical manifestation and both examinations were statistically significant (p < .001). A significant relationship between all the clinical criteria of the patients in the KOH especially the clinical manifestation was significantly related to Wood's lamp. The Cohen's Kappa assessment suggested that there was an agreement between KOH and Wood's lamp (κ = -0.272, p < .001). CONCLUSION: The clinical symptoms of Malassezia folliculitis are dominated by pruritus, papulopustular follicular lesions on the trunk and the presence of spore load.

Crusted Scabies, a Neglected Tropical Disease: Case Series and Literature Review.

Crusted scabies is a rare form of scabies that presents with more severe symptoms than those of classic scabies. It is characterized by large crusted lesions, extensive scales, thick hyperkeratosis, and contains a large number of highly contagious itch mites. Crusted scabies is more prevalent in immunocompromised, malnourished, and disabled individuals. This disease has been linked to a variety of health problems, including delayed diagnosis, infection risk, and high mortality, mainly from sepsis, and it has the potential to cause an outbreak due to its hyper-infestation, which makes it highly infectious. This article reports three cases of crusted scabies in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Recent updates and a comprehensive review of the literature on the disease are also included, emphasizing the critical importance of early diagnosis and effective medical management of patients, which are necessary to prevent the complications and spread in communities.

In Silico and In Vitro Evaluation of the Antimicrobial Potential of Bacillus cereus Isolated from Apis dorsata Gut against Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

Antimicrobial resistance is a major public health and development concern on a global scale. The increasing resistance of the pathogenic bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae to antibiotics necessitates efforts to identify potential alternative antibiotics from nature, including insects, which are already recognized as a source of natural antibiotics by the scientific community. This study aimed to determine the potential of components of gut-associated bacteria isolated from Apis dorsata, an Asian giant honeybee, as an antibacterial against N. gonorrhoeae by in vitro and in silico methods as an initial process in the stage of new drug discovery. The identified gut-associated bacteria of A. dorsata included Acinetobacter indicus and Bacillus cereus with 100% identity to referenced bacteria from GenBank. Cell-free culture supernatants (CFCS) of B. cereus had a very strong antibacterial activity against N. gonorrhoeae in an in vitro antibacterial testing. Meanwhile, molecular docking revealed that antimicrobial lipopeptides from B. cereus (surfactin, fengycin, and iturin A) had a comparable value of binding-free energy (BFE) with the target protein receptor for N. gonorrhoeae, namely penicillin-binding protein (PBP) 1 and PBP2 when compared with the ceftriaxone, cefixime, and doxycycline. The molecular dynamics simulation (MDS) study revealed that the surfactin remains stable at the active site of PBP2 despite the alteration of the H-bond and hydrophobic interactions. According to this finding, surfactin has the greatest antibacterial potential against PBP2 of N. gonorrhoeae.

Designing an epitope vaccine against Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus: An in silico study.

The house dust mite, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, is a major source of the inhaled allergen Der p 1, which causes immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated hypersensitivity reactions manifesting in allergic diseases. To date, no drugs or vaccines effectively treat or prevent Der p 1 sensitization. We applied in silico immunoinformatics to design T-cell and B-cell epitopes that were specified and developed from the allergen Der p 1 of D. pteronyssinus. We identified the conserved epitope areas by predicting the accessibility and flexibility of B-cell epitopes, and the percentage of human leukocyte antigen representing T cells. Molecular docking using HADDOCK software indicated three optimal clusters: cluster 6 (z-score: -2.1), cluster 1 (z-score: -1.2), and cluster 3 (z-score: -0.6). The most negative Z-score was found in cluster 6, which represented three epitopes. The interaction between A chain proteins (IgE protein residues) and B chains (Der p 1 protein residues) exhibited a knowledge-based FADE and contact value >1, suggesting the best protein interactions occurred in the conserved area. Molecular dynamic simulation further predicted the stable nature of Der p 1 protein. The IQRDNGYQP region is the best candidate to be utilized as a D. pteronyssinus epitope vaccine, which could be used in the development of allergen-specific immunotherapy.