UF to lead research on life-threatening fungus

July 31, 2007

http://news.ufl.edu/2007/07/31/fungus/

Filed under Research, Health on Tuesday, July 31, 2007.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Hear the word fungus, and mushrooms and mold might

leap to mind. But the University of Florida is about to house the nation’s first

research repository for one species that has nothing to do with pizza toppings

or marbling blue cheese: Aspergillus, which increasingly poses a major health

threat to cancer patients and transplant recipients.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded $9 million over the next seven

years to the effort. UF researchers are collaborating with colleagues at Duke

University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and the Dana-Farber Cancer

Institute, who will funnel patients’ respiratory, urine and blood samples to UF.

The repository will support research aimed at learning more about the fungus and

efforts to develop more accurate tests to detect it in patients.

“Aspergillus is everywhere, particularly in the air we breathe; all of us

breathe it in all the time,” said principal investigator Wingard, M.D.,

director of UF’s blood and marrow transplant program and deputy director of the

UF Shands Cancer Center. “On a windy day, especially in a dusty environment or

every time some dirt gets moved around, lots of these organisms get

aerosolized.”

The number of people contracting Aspergillus infections jumped enormously in

the 1990s, Wingard said, and those with weakened immune systems are particularly

susceptible. Aspergillosis is the leading cause of death from infection in bone

marrow transplant and leukemia patients, as well as among those who receive

certain other solid organ transplants, he said. About 15 percent of all bone

marrow transplant patients, for example, will develop an infection from

Aspergillus; of those, about two-thirds die.

“We haven’t had good treatments, we haven’t had good prevention methods and,

most importantly, we haven’t had good diagnostic methods to identify which

patients have these infections,” Wingard said. “Since we often don’t recognize

that patients have aspergillosis until very late in the course of the infection,

by the time we try to treat the infection it is often so advanced we have very

poor prospects of bringing it under control.”

A number of hospitals undergoing renovations have experienced outbreaks, in

many cases after the organism contaminated ventilation systems or fireproofing

materials. Despite hospitals’ infection control measures aimed at minimizing

risks, including special air filtration systems designed to filter out

Aspergillus and other infectious agents, facilities can still have problems and

sometimes have even had to temporarily close their patient-care units.

“You and I have a good healthy defense, so while we may be colonized by the

organisms, we rarely get serious infections,” Wingard said. “But if we become

immunocompromised, those organisms can be deposited on the mucosal surface of

nasal passages, the sinuses and the bronchi, and they can start invading and can

cause very serious, deadly infections.”

Complicating the picture is that aspergillosis is frequently mistaken for

bacterial pneumonia, and tests for the infection often are initially negative.

“Historically, our only means of diagnosing these infections has been by

growing the organism from patient’s specimens in the laboratory and then having

it identified by an experienced mycologist,” said Barbara D. , M.D.,

the project’s co-principal investigator and director of transplant infectious

diseases services and the clinical mycology laboratory at Duke University

Medical Center. “These conventional methods for diagnosing fungal disease are

slow and lack sensitivity. Furthermore, many times the patients are too sick to

tolerate the invasive procedures, such as lung biopsy, in order to obtain the

samples for laboratory testing.”

Wingard said two-thirds of the time tests are negative even though patients

have the infection.

“That’s the biggest challenge — we may suspect patients have the infection but

we can’t really know with certainty from currently available tests whether they

truly are infected or not,” he said. “We end up making clinical decisions about

using drugs that may be toxic or using the wrong drugs in patients when we are

not sure whether they have this deadly infection.”

Officials are hoping to collect samples from about 200 patients a year for the

next seven years to better characterize the fungus and improve the diagnostic

accuracy and speed of tests used to detect aspergillosis. The repository will

include samples from patients with confirmed infections that will be compared

with samples from patients whose diagnosis is less clear and with samples from

patients who are at high-risk but not infected.

Researchers also will work with Emory University, Indianapolis-based MiraVista

Diagnostics, and the University of Manchester in England to evaluate existing

tests and develop new, more accurate and less invasive ones.

While more potent treatment regimens are improving prospects for patients,

so-called emerging pathogens — viruses, bacteria and fungi — are a growing

medical problem, Wingard said.

“With advancing medical technology and more powerful antibiotics, patients are

living longer,” he said. “We have a growing population of patients who are

susceptible to very serious infections by viruses, bacteria and fungi that in

years past were not medical problems.”

---------------------------------

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July 31, 2007

Darlene,

This is good news. But everyone please take note they are only

invesitgating INFECTION, not allergy or mycotoxicosis or any of the

other myriad suspected conditions.

I also hope the actual research makes a distinction (which the

article below doesn't) between the multitude of species of

Aspergillus and those responsible for infections. Aspergillus

fumatatus is the most notorious for Aspergillosis infections but it

is NOT as prevalent as other species and is but one of thousands. Not

considering this would be like indicting all felines including house

cats based on the dangerous behavior of lions, tigers and panthers.

Not all cats are alike and not all Aspergillus is alike.

Carl Grimes

Healthy Habitats LLC

-----

> UF to lead research on life-threatening fungus

http://news.ufl.edu/2007/07/31/fungus/

> Filed under Research, Health on Tuesday, July 31, 2007.

> GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Hear the word fungus, and mushrooms and mold

might leap to mind. But the University of Florida is about to house the nation’s

first research repository for one species that has nothing to do with pizza

toppings or marbling blue cheese: Aspergillus, which increasingly poses a major

health threat to cancer patients and transplant recipients.

> The National Institutes of Health has awarded $9 million over the next seven

years to the effort. UF researchers are collaborating with colleagues at Duke

University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and the Dana-Farber Cancer

Institute, who will funnel patients’ respiratory, urine and blood samples to UF.

The repository will support research aimed at learning more about the fungus and

efforts to develop more accurate tests to detect it in patients.

> “Aspergillus is everywhere, particularly in the air we breathe; all of us

breathe it in all the time,” said principal investigator Wingard, M.D.,

director of UF’s blood and marrow transplant program and deputy director of the

UF Shands Cancer Center. “On a windy day, especially in a dusty environment or

every time some dirt gets moved around, lots of these organisms get

aerosolized. "

> The number of people contracting Aspergillus infections jumped enormously in

the 1990s, Wingard said, and those with weakened immune systems are particularly

susceptible. Aspergillosis is the leading cause of death from infection in bone

marrow transplant and leukemia patients, as well as among those who receive

certain other solid organ transplants, he said. About 15 percent of all bone

marrow transplant patients, for example, will develop an infection from

Aspergillus; of those, about two-thirds die.

> “We haven’t had good treatments, we haven’t had good prevention methods and,

most importantly, we haven’t had good diagnostic methods to identify which

patients have these infections,” Wingard said. “Since we often don’t recognize

that patients have aspergillosis until very late in the course of the infection,

by the time we try to treat the infection it is often so advanced we have very

poor prospects of bringing it under control.”

> A number of hospitals undergoing renovations have experienced outbreaks, in

many cases after the organism contaminated ventilation systems or fireproofing

materials. Despite hospitals’ infection control measures aimed at minimizing

risks, including special air filtration systems designed to filter out

Aspergillus and other infectious agents, facilities can still have problems and

sometimes have even had to temporarily close their patient-care units.

> “You and I have a good healthy defense, so while we may be colonized by the

organisms, we rarely get serious infections,” Wingard said. “But if we become

immunocompromised, those organisms can be deposited on the mucosal surface of

nasal passages, the sinuses and the bronchi, and they can start invading and can

cause very serious, deadly infections. "

> Complicating the picture is that aspergillosis is frequently mistaken for

bacterial pneumonia, and tests for the infection often are initially negative.

> “Historically, our only means of diagnosing these infections has been by

growing the organism from patient’s specimens in the laboratory and then having

it identified by an experienced mycologist,” said Barbara D. , M.D.,

the project’s co-principal investigator and director of transplant infectious

diseases services and the clinical mycology laboratory at Duke University

Medical Center. " These conventional methods for diagnosing fungal disease are

slow and lack sensitivity. Furthermore, many times the patients are too sick to

tolerate the invasive procedures, such as lung biopsy, in order to obtain the

samples for laboratory testing. "

> Wingard said two-thirds of the time tests are negative even though patients

have the infection.

> “That’s the biggest challenge — we may suspect patients have the infection

but we can’t really know with certainty from currently available tests whether

they truly are infected or not,” he said. “We end up making clinical decisions

about using drugs that may be toxic or using the wrong drugs in patients when we

are not sure whether they have this deadly infection. "

> Officials are hoping to collect samples from about 200 patients a year for

the next seven years to better characterize the fungus and improve the

diagnostic accuracy and speed of tests used to detect aspergillosis. The

repository will include samples from patients with confirmed infections that

will be compared with samples from patients whose diagnosis is less clear and

with samples from patients who are at high-risk but not infected.

> Researchers also will work with Emory University, Indianapolis-based

MiraVista Diagnostics, and the University of Manchester in England to evaluate

existing tests and develop new, more accurate and less invasive ones.

> While more potent treatment regimens are improving prospects for patients,

so-called emerging pathogens — viruses, bacteria and fungi — are a growing

medical problem, Wingard said.

> “With advancing medical technology and more powerful antibiotics, patients

are living longer,” he said. “We have a growing population of patients who are

susceptible to very serious infections by viruses, bacteria and fungi that in

years past were not medical problems.”

>

> ---------------------------------

> Building a website is a piece of cake.

> Small Business gives you all the tools to get online.

>

July 31, 2007

Carl, thank you so much for making reference to the article. Until you pointed

this out in your comment, I hadn't thought of them not investigating allergy or

mycotoxicosis, etc. Sometimes we tend to overlook the big picture when it comes

to experts doing research, and just assume the compilation would include

investigation into the allergy, or mycotoxicosis . I don't understand why they

would only look at infection. Infection's come in many forms, from many sources

and if you have an allergy and proceeds to infection........well.

Like with myself, I went to the eye doctor, told him about the effects I was

having with the eyes: white goop just in corners of eyes every day, all day,

the burning, sometimes the drying grit like feeling. I told him about my

allergies to aspergillus, etc which is in my HVAC and in building: I do not

have conjunctivitis, I have a bacterial infection in my eyes due to the

allergies to the indoor molds therefore putting me on a prescription for

ointment to be used everynight, with one refill. then to let him now if not any

better. Darlene

" Carl E. Grimes " <grimes@...> wrote:

Darlene,

This is good news. But everyone please take note they are only

invesitgating INFECTION, not allergy or mycotoxicosis or any of the

other myriad suspected conditions.

I also hope the actual research makes a distinction (which the

article below doesn't) between the multitude of species of

Aspergillus and those responsible for infections. Aspergillus

fumatatus is the most notorious for Aspergillosis infections but it

is NOT as prevalent as other species and is but one of thousands. Not

considering this would be like indicting all felines including house

cats based on the dangerous behavior of lions, tigers and panthers.

Not all cats are alike and not all Aspergillus is alike.

Carl Grimes

Healthy Habitats LLC

-----

> UF to lead research on life-threatening fungus

http://news.ufl.edu/2007/07/31/fungus/

> Filed under Research, Health on Tuesday, July 31, 2007.

> GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Hear the word fungus, and mushrooms and mold

might leap to mind. But the University of Florida is about to house the nation’s

first research repository for one species that has nothing to do with pizza

toppings or marbling blue cheese: Aspergillus, which increasingly poses a major

health threat to cancer patients and transplant recipients.

> The National Institutes of Health has awarded $9 million over the next

seven years to the effort. UF researchers are collaborating with colleagues at

Duke University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and the Dana-Farber

Cancer Institute, who will funnel patients’ respiratory, urine and blood samples

to UF. The repository will support research aimed at learning more about the

fungus and efforts to develop more accurate tests to detect it in patients.

> “Aspergillus is everywhere, particularly in the air we breathe; all of us

breathe it in all the time,” said principal investigator Wingard, M.D.,

director of UF’s blood and marrow transplant program and deputy director of the

UF Shands Cancer Center. “On a windy day, especially in a dusty environment or

every time some dirt gets moved around, lots of these organisms get

aerosolized. "

> The number of people contracting Aspergillus infections jumped enormously

in the 1990s, Wingard said, and those with weakened immune systems are

particularly susceptible. Aspergillosis is the leading cause of death from

infection in bone marrow transplant and leukemia patients, as well as among

those who receive certain other solid organ transplants, he said. About 15

percent of all bone marrow transplant patients, for example, will develop an

infection from Aspergillus; of those, about two-thirds die.

> “We haven’t had good treatments, we haven’t had good prevention methods

and, most importantly, we haven’t had good diagnostic methods to identify which