[Chronic pulmonary Aspergillosis. Four exemplary clinical cases and literature overview]. / Chronische pulmonale Aspergillose. Vier klinische Fallbeispiele und Überblick über die aktuelle Literatur.

Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) is a rare complication in patients with either mild immunosuppression or various pulmonary diseases. Diagnosis and therapy are challenging because of unspecific symptoms like productive cough, weight loss, fever and haemoptysis. Differential diagnoses are manifold, and CPA is characterized by findings in chest CT and serologic proof of precipitins. Surgery is only recommended for simple aspergillomas. Recurrent prolonged courses of antifungal treatment yield satisfactory short-term outcome, but long-term prognosis is uncertain. We provide an overview of the literature and present four cases to illustrate disease diversity.

[The skin's own antibiotics. Important features of antimicrobial peptides for clinical practice]. / Hauteigene Antibiotika. Wichtige Erkenntnisse über antimikrobielle Peptide für Klinik und Praxis.

Despite permanent confrontation with a potentially harmful environment, its own microbiota and the fact that minor injuries occur frequently in everyday life, skin infections are a rare event. A chemical barrier of antimicrobial peptides (AMP), some of them constitutively expressed, others inducible by various stimuli, contributes to the integument's resistance. AMP are evolutionarily old components of the innate immunity which became the focus of interest due to their broad spectrum of activity against microorganisms and the rare occurrence of antimicrobial resistance. These attributes make them promising alternative candidates for future antibiotics. Furthermore various dermatological diseases are associated with an altered expression of these molecules, which might then play a pathogenetic role. In addition to their antimicrobial activity, some AMP have immunomodulatory effects and can promote wound healing, properties which currently are under intensive research.