Candida lusitaniae are a species of the yeast Candida, which actually occurs as a commensal in the human body, but can also cause infections in immunodeficiency. Infections of the lungs in particular can develop into fungemia, a form of sepsis (blood poisoning). The opportunistic pathogenicity of the fungal species has been documented primarily in association with cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
What are Candida lusitaniae?
Tubular fungi or Ascomycota are a division of fungi that breaks down into subdivisions such as Saccharomycotina. This subdivision includes the class Saccharomycetes with orders such as the true yeasts, Saccharomycetales. The sac fungus family Incertae sedis belongs to this order and includes the genus Candida. Candida is a yeast genus that is divided into different species. The genus includes about 150 species. Some of these species occur as commensals in the human body. Others are known as pathogenic agents of fungal infections. Candida lusitaniae is one species of the yeast genus that has been associated with human pathogenicity since the 1970s. The species was isolated from patients with fungal sepsis between the late 1970s and the late 1990s. Like all Candida cells, cells of the yeast species Candida lusitaniae grow in the laboratory as large and round colonies with white to cream coloration. Many Candida species yeasts cause problems only after their living environment changes and then spreads, growing through the skin and entering the bloodstream. Candida lusitaniae are also considered opportunistic pathogens of this species, which do not necessarily become pathogenic.
Occurrence, distribution, and characteristics
Many true yeasts grow by pseudohyphae or true hyphae, which bear individual septa with various pores and have cell walls of predominantly β-glucan. They form chitin only at the budding scars. In their asci they form one or more ascospores. Asci are formed from single cells or based on simple ascophores. Mitotic and meiotic division occurs inside the intact nuclear envelope. Candida is referred to as a polymorphic fungal genus that occurs in different growth forms. As a rule, Candida species form so-called blastoconidia by sprouting. In addition, permanent spores or so-called chlamydospores also occur, but not in Candida lusitaniae. The representatives of this yeast species, unlike many other yeast fungi, grow through individual yeast cells. Basically, Candida is a harmless yeast species that naturally grows ideally in the moist environment of the human and animal intestinal mucosa and in other moist and warm body areas, such as in the mouth, inside the esophagus, in the vagina, or on the skin. Under certain circumstances, the yeast species becomes a pathogenic pathogen that continues to develop. The resulting mold can penetrate the skin or mucous membranes, piercing them and causing infection, or enter the bloodstream, where sepsis can develop. Generalized Candida infection, according to current scientific knowledge, exclusively affects people with a weakened immune system. A deficit of the immune system occurs physiologically in old age. However, diseases such as HIV or cancer can also weaken the immune system. Candida lusitaniae have so far caused blood poisoning mainly in patients whose immune system was weakened by malignant cancer and chemotherapy. In immunocompromised patients, the immune system usually eliminates the yeast species as soon as it reaches the bloodstream and thus before it can multiply to an extreme. Candida can theoretically be transmitted from host to host via smear infection. However, most infections are endogenous infections due to commensals in one’s own body that have gotten out of control.
Diseases and ailments
The initial symptoms of Candida infection are often relatively nonspecific and consist of bloating, gastrointestinal symptoms such as constipation, abdominal cramping, or bloated feeling. At the site of the primary Candida lusitaniae infection, itching may develop. When the pathogens reach the bloodstream and spread throughout the body through the blood, Candida fungemia is present.This is a fungal sepsis in which the pathogens are repeatedly washed into the bloodstream in episodes or continuously and cause a systemic inflammatory reaction of the entire body. Therapy usually consists of administration of amphotericin B in combination with flucytosine. In immunocompromised individuals, the immune system intervenes and sets about eliminating the pathogens. Candida fungal sepsis therefore exclusively affects immunocompromised people. Sepsis due to the pathogen Candida lusitaniae has apparently been observed more frequently after chemotherapy. Primary infection of the urinary tract, skin, lungs, hair, nails, or other areas of the body is also usually observed only in immunocompromised individuals. Infestation causes the symptoms of mycosis. Mycoses typically remain confined to one body part or tissue, whereas systemic mycoses may affect multiple organ systems or the entire body. Mycoses of the mucous membranes are typical of fungi of the Candida genus. Those are called “weak parasites” in this context, as they are indicative of a weak immune system. The mycosis type manifests itself as a white coating with reddening of the mucous membranes as so-called thrush. Systemic sepsis with Candida lusitaniae is usually preceded by infection of the lungs. Via the lungs, the pathogens reach the blood in the course of the infection. Within the first 20 years, after identification of the yeast species as a pathogen, only 30 cases of sepsis of this type have been documented.
