Caspofungin resistance in clinical Aspergillus flavus isolates.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: The present study was conducted to determine the candidate genes involved in caspofungin (CAS) resistance in clinical isolates of Aspergillus flavus (A. flavus). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The antifungal susceptibility assay of the CAS was performed on 14 clinical isolates of A. flavus using the CLSI-M-38-A2 broth micro-dilution protocol. Since CAS had various potencies, the minimum effective concentration (MEC) of anidulafungin (AND) was also evaluated in the present study. The FKS1 gene sequencing was conducted to assess whether mutations occurred in the whole FKS1 gene as well as hot spot regions of the FKS1 gene of the two resistant isolates. A complementary DNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism (CDNA-AFLP) method was performed to investigate differential gene expression between the two resistant and two sensitive clinical isolates in the presence of CAS. Furthermore, quantitative real-time PCR (QRT-PCR) was utilized to determine the relative expression levels of the identified genes. RESULTS: No mutations were observed in the whole FKS1 gene hot spot regions of the FKS1 genes in the resistant isolates. A subset of two genes with known biological functions and four genes with unknown biological functions were identified in the CAS-resistant isolates using the CDNA-AFLP. The QRT-PCR revealed the down-regulation of the P-type ATPase and ubiquinone biosynthesis methyltransferase COQ5 in the CAS-resistant isolates, compared to the susceptible isolates. CONCLUSION: The findings showed that P-type ATPase and ubiquinone biosynthesis methyltransferase COQ5 might be involved in the CAS-resistance A. flavus clinical isolates. Moreover, a subset of genes was differentially expressed to enhance fungi survival in CAS exposure. Further studies are recommended to highlight the gene overexpression and knock-out experiments in A. flavus or surrogate organisms to confirm that these mentioned genes confer the CAS resistant A. flavus.

Herbal Therapy for the Management of Seborrheic Dermatitis: A Narrative Review.

INTRODUCTION: Dandruff and Seborrheic Dermatitis (SD) are similar skin conditions with different degrees ofseverity. Since the current therapies cannot remove dandruff efficiently, herbal extracts with better effectiveness and fewer side effects are used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Due to the adverse effects of chemical drugs, the use of natural products and traditional medicine has significantly increased over the past few decades. Therefore, in this review, we reported the herbs used as anti-dandruff agents in traditional medicine worldwide. METHODS: The review was conducted on the literature available on the medicinal utility of certain plants as anti-dandruff agents using PubMed and Google Scholar and the following search terms: Dandruff and plants or medicinal plant and dandruff treatment, and essential oil and dandruff. RESULTS: Since the current therapies cannotefficiently remove dandruff, herbal extracts with better effectiveness and fewer side effects are used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Nowadays, there are numerous different types of herbal antidandruff shampoos. They are effective and safe without the side effects of chemical agents. Recently, herbal medicine has attracted a great deal of scientific attention. Clinical evidence on the therapeutic effects of herbal products has resulted in the study of far more herbs for their therapeutic roles. CONCLUSION: Herbal therapy plays a significant role in the development of favorable therapeutics, either alone or in combination with conventional antibiotics. However, the major challenges in this regard include finding compounds with satisfactorily lower MICs, low toxicity, and high bioavailability for effective and safe use in humans and animals.