Molecular epidemiology of invasive Candida albicans at a tertiary hospital in northern Taiwan from 2003 to 2011.
Candida albicans is a common cause of bloodstream fungal infections in hospitalized patients. To investigate its epidemiology, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) was performed on 285 C. albicans bloodstream isolates from patients in Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou (CGMHL), Taiwan from 2003 to 2011. Among these isolates, the three major diploid sequence types (DSTs) were 693, 659, and 443 with 19, 16, and 13 isolates, respectively. The 179 DSTs were classified into 16 clades by unweighted pair-group method using arithmetic averages (UPGMA). The major ones were clades 1, 4, 3, and 17 (54, 49, 31, and 31 isolates, respectively). Further analyses with eBURST clustered the 285 isolates into 28 clonal complexes (CC). The most common complexes were CC8, CC20, and CC9. DST 693 that had the highest number of isolates was determined to be the cluster founder of CC20, which belonged to clade 3. So far, 33 isolates worldwide including 29 from Taiwan and 4 from Korea, are CC20, suggesting that CC20 is an Asian cluster. Two fluconazole-resistant isolates belonging to CC12 and CC19 were detected. All other CGMHL isolates were susceptible to 5-flucytosine, amphotericin B, anidulfungin, caspofungin, fluconazole, itraconazole, micafungin, posaconazole, and voriconazole. However, CC20 isolates exhibited significantly lower susceptibility to fluconazole. In conclusion, the 285 CGMHL C. albicans isolates displayed geographically clustering with Asian isolates, and most of them are susceptible to common antifungal drugs. Isolates of DST 693, a Taiwanese major genotype belonging to MLST clade 3, were more resistant to fluconazole than other isolates.
Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Biopharmaceuticals, National Chiayi University, Chiayi City, Taiwan.
Shao-Hung
SH
Wang
Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Biopharmaceuticals, National Chiayi University, Chiayi City, Taiwan.
Mandy
M
Shen
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
Hsin-Chieh
HC
Lin
Department of Dermatology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
Pei-Lun
PL
Sun
National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan School of Dentistry, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Hsiu-Jung
HJ
Lo
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan Department of Medical Biotechnology and Laboratory Science, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan janglu45@gmail.com.
Jang-Jih
JJ
Lu
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D002176:Candida albicans / Q000145:classification* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D058365:Candidiasis, Invasive / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D025141:Drug Resistance, Fungal; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D016533:Mycological Typing Techniques; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers
D000935:Antifungal Agents
Candida albicans; antifungal susceptibility test; candidemia; multilocus sequence typing (MLST)