Evaluation of chitin as a biomarker of pathogenic fungal isolates
Chitin is a polysaccharide component of the inner cell wall of fungi that has been used to estimate fungal invasion in plant products. However, its detection in major pathogenic fungal species has not been investigated. The present study aimed to determine the chitin contents of pathogenic funga...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2021
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16913/1/15.pdf http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16913/ https://www.ukm.my/jsm/malay_journals/jilid50bil3_2021/KandunganJilid50Bil3_2021.html |
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| Summary: | Chitin is a polysaccharide component of the inner cell wall of fungi that has been used to estimate fungal invasion
in plant products. However, its detection in major pathogenic fungal species has not been investigated. The present
study aimed to determine the chitin contents of pathogenic fungal species in order to evaluate its diagnostic potential
as a biomarker for fungal infections. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to measure chitin
content. Pure chitin was acid hydrolyzed and the fluorescence of 9-fluorenylmethylchloroformate (FMOC-CI) derivatives
of glucosamine produced were measured. The chitin contents of ten pathogenic fungal isolates were determined per
mycelial dry weight. They varied from 18.61 (± 0.09) to 47.12 (± 0.50) µg/mg dry mycelial weight. Candida albicans and
Cryptococcus neoformans exhibited the highest and lowest levels of chitin, respectively. Based upon relative amounts of
chitin produced, three groups namely: high (Candida albicans, Cryptococcus gattii, Aspergillus niger and Penicillium
at 47.12, 46.98, 46.05, and 44.15 µg/mg respectively), medium (Rhizopus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Fusarium solani, and
Mucor at 36.61, 36.30, 35.03, and 34.84 µg/mg, respectively), and low (Candida tropicalis and Cryptococcus neoformans
at 20.78 and 18.61 µg/mg, respectively), were identified. Chitin was not detectable in bacterial isolates used as controls.
The chitin detection method offers a sensitive and specific tool for the quantification of chitin in pathogenic fungal isolates.
The detection of chitin may be a useful assay for the diagnosis of fungal infections in clinical samples. |
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