PMID- 26026172
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20160505
LR  - 20150707
IS  - 1460-2709 (Electronic)
IS  - 1369-3786 (Linking)
VI  - 53
IP  - 6
DP  - 2015 Aug
TI  - Analysis of asthma patients for cryptococcal seroreactivity in an urban German 
      area.
PG  - 576-86
LID - 10.1093/mmy/myv024 [doi]
AB  - Cryptococcus neoformans is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that causes lung 
      inflammation and meningoencephalitis in immunocompromised patients but is also 
      able to asymptomatically infect immunocompetent individuals. C. neoformans is 
      found ubiquitously especially in urban areas where it is spread by pigeons, and 
      fungal exposure may predispose for asthma development already at an early age, as 
      soon as confronted with pigeon droppings. In the study presented here, we 
      investigated the presence of specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) against C. 
      neoformans in sera from patients suffering from asthma in comparison to a healthy 
      control cohort, accrued from the Leipzig Research Centre for Civilization 
      Diseases (LIFE). For serological analysis we developed a flow cytometry (FACS) 
      based assay specific for an acapsular strain of C. neoformans to comprehensively 
      analyze different cryptococcal serotypes. Compared with the non-asthmatic cohort, 
      asthmatics exhibited, as expected, an elevated level of total serum 
      immunoglobulin E (IgE), whereas the IgG seroreactivity against C. neoformans was 
      not significantly different among the two groups (P = .118). Nevertheless, there 
      was a trend toward increased Cryptococcus-specific IgG antibodies in the serum of 
      asthmatics. Additionally, in male asthmatics an increased IgG-mediated 
      seroreactivity compared to female asthmatics was found. This points to a higher 
      prevalence of subclinical C. neoformans infection in male asthmatics and may 
      support the hypothesis of C. neoformans as a risk factor for the development of 
      asthma in urban areas.
CI  - (c) The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The 
      International Society for Human and Animal Mycology. All rights reserved. For 
      permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
FAU - Grahnert, Andreas
AU  - Grahnert A
AD  - Institute of Immunology/Molecular Pathogenesis, Center for Biotechnology and 
      Biomedicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, 
      Germany.
FAU - Muller, Uwe
AU  - Muller U
AD  - Institute of Immunology/Molecular Pathogenesis, Center for Biotechnology and 
      Biomedicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, 
      Germany.
FAU - von Buttlar, Heiner
AU  - von Buttlar H
AD  - Institute of Immunology/Molecular Pathogenesis, Center for Biotechnology and 
      Biomedicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, 
      Germany.
FAU - Treudler, Regina
AU  - Treudler R
AD  - Department of Dermatology, Venerology & Allergology, University of Leipzig, 
      Leipzig, Germany LIFE-Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases, 
      Universitat Leipzig, Germany.
FAU - Alber, Gottfried
AU  - Alber G
AD  - Institute of Immunology/Molecular Pathogenesis, Center for Biotechnology and 
      Biomedicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, 
      Germany LIFE-Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases, Universitat 
      Leipzig, Germany alber@rz.uni-leipzig.de.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20150530
PL  - England
TA  - Med Mycol
JT  - Medical mycology
JID - 9815835
RN  - 0 (Antibodies, Fungal)
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Antibodies, Fungal/*blood
MH  - Asthma/complications/*epidemiology
MH  - Case-Control Studies
MH  - Cryptococcosis/complications/epidemiology/*immunology
MH  - Cryptococcus neoformans/*immunology
MH  - Female
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Cryptococcus neoformans
OT  - asthma
OT  - fungal allergy
OT  - seroreactivity
EDAT- 2015/05/31 06:00
MHDA- 2016/05/06 06:00
CRDT- 2015/05/31 06:00
PHST- 2015/03/17 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2015/03/16 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2015/05/31 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2015/05/31 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2016/05/06 06:00 [medline]
AID - myv024 [pii]
AID - 10.1093/mmy/myv024 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Med Mycol. 2015 Aug;53(6):576-86. doi: 10.1093/mmy/myv024. Epub 2015 May 30.