ArticleClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2013
Near-universal prevalence of Pneumocystis and associated increase in mucus in the lungs of infants with sudden unexpected death.
Article in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers.
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41 citing papers in PubMed, 63 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Germline IgM predicts T cell immunity to Pneumocystis.JCI insight · 2022Article
- Targeted NGS-Based Analysis ofJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Pneumocystis jirovecii Colonization in Preterm Newborns With Respiratory Distress Syndrome.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2022Article
- Is There a Role for the Microbiome and Sudden Death? A Systematic Review.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Transmission and Colonization ofJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Pneumocystis Mating-Type Locus and Sexual Cycle during Infection.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2021Review
- The association of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole with improved lung function in pediatric asthma.Annals of allergy, asthma & immunology : official publication of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology · 2021Article
- Optimized DNA extraction and purification method for characterization of bacterial and fungal communities in lung tissue samples.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Diagnosis ofJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
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- [Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia-an opportunistic infection undergoing change].Der Internist · 2019Review
- The Contribution of Host Cells toPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Review
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPneumocystis without obvious accompanying pathology is occasionally reported in autopsied infant lungs. Its prevalence and significance are unknown. Interestingly, this mild infection induces a strong activation of mucus secretion-related genes in young immunocompetent rodents that has not been explored in infants. Excess mucus is induced by multiple airway offenders through nonspecific pathways and would explain a cofactor role of Pneumocystis in respiratory disease. We undertook characterization of the prevalence of Pneumocystis and associated mucus in infant lungs.
methodsSamples from 128 infants (mean age, 101 days) who died suddenly and unexpectedly in Santiago during 1999-2004 were examined for Pneumocystis using nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) amplification of the P. jirovecii mtLSU ribosomal RNA gene and immunofluorescence microscopy (IF). Pneumocystis-negative infants 28 days and older and their age-closest positives were studied for MUC5AC expression and Pneumocystis burden by Western blot and quantitative PCR, respectively.
resultsPneumocystis DNA was detected by nPCR in 105 of the 128 infants (82.0%) and Pneumocystis organisms were visualized by IF in 99 (94.3%) of the DNA-positive infants. The infection was commonest at 3-4 months with 40 of 41 (97.6%) infants of that age testing positive. MUC5AC was significantly increased in Pneumocystis-positive tissue specimens (P = .013). Death was unexplained in 113 (88.3%) infants; Pneumocystis was detected in 95 (84.0%) of them vs 10 of 15 (66.7%) with explained death (P = .28).
conclusionsA highly focal Pneumocystis infection associated to increased mucus expression is almost universally present in the lungs of infants dying unexpectedly in the community regardless of autopsy diagnosis.
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