PMID- 37347744 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20230626 LR - 20231118 IS - 1932-6203 (Electronic) IS - 1932-6203 (Linking) VI - 18 IP - 6 DP - 2023 TI - Iron metabolism disorders of patients with chronic paracoccidioidomycosis. PG - e0282218 LID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0282218 [doi] LID - e0282218 AB - Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) is caused by Paracoccidioides spp.; during infection, some host mechanisms limit the availability of iron, thereby reducing its reproduction. However, Paracoccidioides spp. can evade the immune defense and, even under limited iron conditions, use this mineral for growth and dissemination. This study evaluated the iron metabolism of 39 patients who were diagnosed with chronic PCM from 2013 to 2021. The forms of iron before treatment and at the time of clinical cure were evaluated based on the following: serum ferritin levels (storage iron); total iron-binding capacity (TIBC) and transferrin saturation (TSAT) level (transport iron); red blood cell (RBC), hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (HCT), and soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) levels; and sTfR/log ferritin ratio (functional iron). The mean age of the patients was 54.5 years (+/-6.7 years). Most patients were men (97.4%), rural workers (92.1%), and smokers (84.6%); furthermore, most had moderate disease severity (66.7%). After achieving clinical cure, we observed that serum ferritin levels decreased, and parameters of functional iron increased. The extent of alteration in these parameters were more pronounced in severe cases than in to mild or moderate cases. Furthermore, moderate correlations were observed between C-reactive protein and the Hb (r = -0.500; p = 0.002), RBC (r = -0.461; p = 0.005), HCT (r = -0.514; p = 0.001), and iron levels (r = -0.491; p = 0.002). However, it is possible to infer that PCM interferes with functional and storage iron because improvements in these parameters after treatment as well as associations with disease severity were observed. PCM can lead to anemia of inflammation, which can be differentiated from iron deficiency anemia by a careful investigation of the iron form parameters. CI - Copyright: (c) 2023 de Brito et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. FAU - de Brito, Eliana da Costa Alvarenga AU - de Brito EDCA AD - Graduate Program in Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. FAU - Siqueira, Igor Valadares AU - Siqueira IV AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-5627-206X AD - Scientific Initiation CNPq, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. FAU - Venturini, James AU - Venturini J AD - Graduate Program in Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. FAU - Felix, Vinicius Lopes Teodoro AU - Felix VLT AD - Scientific Initiation CNPq, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. FAU - Dos Santos, Alana Oswaldina Gavioli Meira AU - Dos Santos AOGM AD - Graduate Program in Health and Development of the Central West Region, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. FAU - Mendes, Rinaldo Poncio AU - Mendes RP AD - Graduate Program in Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. AD - Department of Tropical Diseases, Botucatu Medical School, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Botucatu, Sao Paulo, Brazil. FAU - Weber, Simone Schneider AU - Weber SS AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-4181-142X AD - Graduate Program in Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. AD - Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Food and Nutrition, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. FAU - Paniago, Anamaria Mello Miranda AU - Paniago AMM AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-8925-7712 AD - Graduate Program in Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. AD - Graduate Program in Health and Development of the Central West Region, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. LA - eng PT - Journal Article PT - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't DEP - 20230622 PL - United States TA - PLoS One JT - PloS one JID - 101285081 RN - E1UOL152H7 (Iron) RN - 9007-73-2 (Ferritins) RN - 0 (Hemoglobins) RN - 0 (Receptors, Transferrin) SB - IM MH - Male MH - Humans MH - Middle Aged MH - Female MH - Iron/metabolism MH - *Paracoccidioidomycosis MH - Ferritins MH - *Anemia/drug therapy MH - Hemoglobins/metabolism MH - Receptors, Transferrin MH - *Iron Metabolism Disorders/drug therapy MH - *Anemia, Iron-Deficiency PMC - PMC10286993 COIS- The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. EDAT- 2023/06/22 19:15 MHDA- 2023/06/26 06:41 PMCR- 2023/06/22 CRDT- 2023/06/22 13:33 PHST- 2023/02/08 00:00 [received] PHST- 2023/06/06 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2023/06/26 06:41 [medline] PHST- 2023/06/22 19:15 [pubmed] PHST- 2023/06/22 13:33 [entrez] PHST- 2023/06/22 00:00 [pmc-release] AID - PONE-D-23-03640 [pii] AID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0282218 [doi] PST - epublish SO - PLoS One. 2023 Jun 22;18(6):e0282218. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0282218. eCollection 2023.