E. Bartdelabesse et al., CANDIDA-ALBICANS GENOTYPING IN STUDIES WITH PATIENTS WITH AIDS DEVELOPING RESISTANCE TO FLUCONAZOLE, Journal of clinical microbiology, 31(11), 1993, pp. 2933-2937
We characterized Candida albicans strains responsible for recurrent or
opharyngeal candidosis (OPC) in four patients with AIDS who developed
clinical and mycological resistance to fluconazole (FCZ). Karyotype an
d restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses were performed on
the clonal populations to differentiate relapse from reinfection, and
the results were assessed with those of serotype and FCZ MICs. Despite
the polymorphism in chromosomal bands larger than 2.2 Mbp related to
an intraclonal variation, karyotype analysis showed a single strain ty
pe attributable to each patient. On the other hand, EcoRI and HinfI re
striction fragments revealed a polymorphism for one patient between th
e first sample and the subsequent ones, relevant to the acquisition of
a new strain causing the following episodes of OPC. This result coinc
ided with switching of the serotype and with the acquisition of a resi
stance to FCZ. For the other three patients, the similarity of the DNA
electrophoretic patterns and the serotype of the samples suggested th
at recurrence can be due to the initial strain that generates FCZ resi
stance. Although useful for epidemiological studies, molecular typing
methods seem to be inadequate to detect the acquisition of FCZ resista
nce.