Francoise Botterel

University of Paris-Est Creteil · Microbiology

Although Candida spp are aerobic microorganisms, some Candida strains, mainly Candida glabrata, can be recovered from anaerobic blood culture vials. We assessed the contribution of the anaerobic vials for the diagnosis of candidemia, especially for C. glabrata. We conducted a multicenter retrospective study including eight university or regional ho...

In recent years, we have moved from the sporadic description of terbinafine-resistant (TerR) Trichophyton spp. isolates to the Indian outbreak due to T. indotineae. Population flows have spread TerR worldwide, altering local epidemiology. We conducted a prospective multicentric study to determine the relative frequency of TerR isolates in France (P...

Background Early diagnosis and prompt initiation of specific antifungal treatment is essential for improving the prognosis of mucormycosis. We aimed to assess the performance of serum Mucorales quantitative PCR (qPCR) for the early diagnosis and follow-up of mucormycosis. Methods We prospectively enrolled 232 patients with suspicion of invasive mo...

Commercial multiplex PCR assay panels were developed to overcome the limitations of microscopic examination for parasitological diagnosis on stool samples. However, given the increased supply of this diagnostic approach, these assays must be evaluated to position them in a diagnostic algorithm. Analytical performances of the multiplex PCR assay G-D...

The invertebrate Galleria mellonella has increasingly and widely been used in the last few years to study complex host–microbe interactions. Aspergillus fumigatus is one of the most pathogenic fungi causing life-threatening diseases in humans and animals. Galleria mellonella larvae has been proven as a reliable model for the analysis of pathogenesi...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Introduction Les teignes sont des dermatophyties fréquentes touchant essentiellement l’enfant. En France, les dermatophytes en cause les plus prévalents appartiennent au genre Trichophyton puis Microsporum. La griséofulvine était le seul traitement ayant une AMM chez les enfants, malgré un rapport bénéfice/risque suboptimal. Début 2021, l’arrêt de...

Aspergillus fumigatus is an environmental filamentous fungus responsible for life-threatening infections in humans and animals. Azoles are the first-line treatment for aspergillosis, but in recent years, the emergence of azole resistance in A. fumigatus has changed treatment recommendations. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy...

We studied COVID-19 associated mucormycosis based on 17 cases reported nationwide and assessed the differences with India. They differed by frequencies of diabetes mellitus (47% in France versus up to 95% in India), hematological malignancies (35% versus 1%), anatomical sites (12% versus >80% rhino-orbito-cerebral) and prognosis (88% mortality vers...

Background Patients with severe COVID-19 have emerged as a population at high risk of invasive fungal infections (IFIs). However, to our knowledge, the prevalence of IFIs has not yet been assessed in large populations of mechanically ventilated patients. We aimed to identify the prevalence, risk factors, and mortality associated with IFIs in mechan...

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to evaluate diagnostic means, host factors, delay of occurrence, and outcome of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia and fungal coinfections in the intensive care unit (ICU). From 1 February to 31 May 2020, we anonymously recorded COVID-19-associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA), fungemia (CA-fungemia), and pneumocy...

Background: The weaker diffusion of echinocandins in the peritoneal fluid (PF) could promote Candida resistant isolates. The aim of this study was to analyse the pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) of caspofungin in plasma and PF of liver transplant recipients. Methods: Liver transplant patients received caspofungin as postoperative prophylax...

Glucocorticoids may cause inflammatory lesions on the face and trunk, often referred as "steroid acne".1 Clinical presentation –similar to folliculitis– and limited efficacy of common anti‐acne treatments have led us to consider the pathogenic responsibility of infectious agents such as Malassezia and/or Demodex.2‐4

Susceptibility testing is an important tool in the clinical setting; its utility is based on the availability of categorical endpoints, breakpoints (BPs) or epidemiological cutoff values (ECVs/ECOFFs). CLSI and EUCAST have developed antifungal susceptibility testing, BPs and ECVs for some fungal species. Although the Concentration Gradient Strip Bi...

Introduction Fusarium spp. est un agent fongique phytopathogène et émergent en pathologie humaine chez les patients sévèrement immunodéprimés et grands brûlés. Les fusarioses invasives restent associées à une importante morbi-mortalité en lien avec un diagnostic difficile en l’absence de culture positive. L’objectif de notre étude est d’évaluer la...

Introduction Environ 5 % des patients atteints de COVID-19 nécessitent une prise en charge en réanimation et sont à risque de développer des infections secondaires, y compris des infections fongiques invasives (IFI). Notre objectif est de décrire l’impact de la première vague de COVID-19 sur la consommation en antifongiques systémiques (AF) en mili...

Fungal ball (FB) rhinosinusitis (RS) is the main type of non-invasive fungal RS. Despite positive direct examination (DE) of biopsies, culture remains negative in more than 60% of cases. The aim of the study was to evaluate the performance/efficacy of targeted metagenomics (TM) to analyze microbiota and mycobiota in FB and find microbial associatio...

We studied COVID-19 associated mucormycosis based on 17 cases reported nationwide and assessed the differences with India. They differed by frequencies of diabetes mellitus (47% in France versus 95% in India), hematological malignancies (35% versus 1%), anatomical sites (53% lung versus >80% rhino-orbito-cerebral) and prognosis (>80% mortality vers...

Background Microsporidiosis has been largely reported in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, but emerged as a cause of persistent diarrhea in solid organ transplant patients. Methods Through the French Microsporidiosis Network and the Groupe français de recherche en greffe de foie, we collected all microsporidiosis cases identified i...

The emergence of azole resistant Aspergillus spp., especially Aspergillus fumigatus, has been described in several countries around the world with varying prevalence depending on the country. To our knowledge, azole resistance in Aspergillus spp. has not been reported in the West Indies yet. In this study, we investigated the antifungal susceptibil...

Introduction Les glucocorticoïdes entraînent parfois des lésions inflammatoires du visage et du tronc, souvent appelées « acné » cortico-induite. Le caractère monomorphe, souvent en pèlerine, et l’analogie sémiologique, folliculite, avec des éruptions à Malassezia et à Demodex nous a fait évoquer leur responsabilité pathogénique. Matériel et métho...

Introduction L’arsenal thérapeutique de la gale reste limité. L’ivermectine (IVM), disponible par voie orale, a une efficacité limitée et est possiblement utilisée sous-dosée à 200 μg/kg. Aucune étude n’a évalué la dose efficace chez l’homme pour la gale. Son usage à une forte dose de 400 μg/kg a montré la preuve de son efficacité dans d’autres ect...

Background Data on incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection are limited. Methods We conducted a monocenter retrospective study comparing the incidence of VAP and invasive aspergillosis between patients with COVID-19-related acute respiratory distress syndro...

Scedosporiosis/lomentosporiosis is a devastating emerging fungal infection. Our objective was to describe the clinical pattern and to analyze whether taxonomic grouping of the species involved was supported by differences in terms of clinical presentations or outcomes. We retrospectively studied cases of invasive scedosporiosis in France from 2005...

Introduction: The complexity of biofilms constitutes a therapeutic challenge and the antimicrobial susceptibility of fungal-bacterial biofilms remains poorly studied. The filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus (Af) and the Gram-negative bacillus Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (Sm) can form biofilms and can be co-isolated from the airways of cystic...

Background Data on the risk factors and outcome of intra‐abdominal fungal infections (IAFI) following simultaneous pancreas‐kidney transplantation (PKT) are scarce. Materials/methods A retrospective monocentric study was conducted on all patients who underwent simultaneous PKT from January 2007 to December 2016. Deep sites positive cultures for fu...

Across the world, many commercial poultry flocks and captive birds are threatened by infection with Aspergillus fumigatus. Susceptibility to aspergillosis varies among birds; among galliform birds specifically, morbidity and mortality rates seem to be greater in turkeys than in chickens. Little is known regarding the features of avian immune respon...

Background The goal of this study was to assess risk factors of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods. We conducted a monocenter retrospective study comparing the prevalence of VAP and invasive aspergillosis between patients with COVID-19 related acute respiratory d...

Interlaboratory evaluations of Mucorales qPCR assays were developed to assess the reproducibility and performance of methods currently used. The participants comprised 12 laboratories from French university hospitals (nine of them participating in the Modimucor study) and 11 laboratories participating in the Fungal PCR Initiative. For panel 1, thre...

Background High-throughput sequencing techniques are used to analyse the diversity of the respiratory microbiota in health and disease. Although extensive data are available regarding bacterial respiratory microbiota, its fungal component remains poorly studied. This is partly due to the technical issues associated with fungal metagenomics analyses...

Cutaneous mucormycosis occurs in immunosuppressed, uncontrolled diabetic, or traumatized patients after skin fungal spores inoculation.1‐4 Here, we present a case of an extensive cutaneous mucormycosis complicating the use of an insulin infusion pump.

A survey of mycology laboratories for antifungal susceptibility testing (AFST) was undertaken in France in 2018, to better understand the difference in practices between the participating centers and to identify the difficulties they may encounter as well as eventual gaps with published standards and guidelines. The survey captured information from...

The treatment of invasive fungal infections remains challenging and the emergence of new fungal pathogens as well as the development of resistance to the main antifungal drugs highlight the need for novel therapeutic strategies. Although in vitro antifungal susceptibility testing has come of age, the proper evaluation of therapeutic efficacy of cur...

Antifungal combination is an interesting approach for the treatment of several fungal infections but there is currently little evidence to support combined therapy in C. auris infections. Recently, it has been shown that the antibacterial colistin could interact synergistically with antifungals against Candida spp., including azole-resistant isolat...

Objectives Aspergillus and Mycobacterium are opportunistic pathogens that can cause severe pulmonary diseases. To date, the clinical significance of their concomitant isolation and potential interactions in the lung remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of their concomitant isolation from respiratory samples,...

Objective: Reference methods to assess drug susceptibility of Aspergillus fumigatus isolates consist in EUCAST and CLSI standardized broth microdilution (BMD) techniques. Considering the increasing rate and the potential impact on the clinical outcome of azole-resistance in A. fumigatus, more suitable techniques for routine testing are needed. Grad...

Background: PCR-based methods are a key tool for the diagnosis of toxoplasmosis in immunocompromised patients. Laboratory-developed protocols lack standardization. This study aimed to assess the performances of a commercial kit for the detection of Toxoplasma DNA in different specimens drawn from immunocompromised patients. Material/methods: This m...

Background Cirrhosis is not recognised as one of the main risk factors of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA), although its prevalence is increasing. The aim of our study was to identify factors for IPA in such patients with a positive Aspergillus sp. culture in respiratory samples and to evaluate its impact on outcome. Methods We conducted a m...

Introduction Lors de la nécrolyse épidermique (NE), la destruction épithéliale favorise la colonisation par des bactéries pathogènes opportunistes (BPO) et des infections possiblement à point de départ cutané (bactériémies à S. aureus et à P. aeruginosa). Nous avons étudié l’évolution du microbiote cutané entre les phases de décollement et de ré-ép...

Introduction La gale touche environ 175 millions de personnes/an (maladie tropicale négligée reconnue par l’OMS en 2017). La morbidité est populationnelle (épidémies, endémies) et individuelle, i.e. prurit et complications, y compris impétigo et néphrite post- streptococcique. Les thérapeutiques proposées sont suboptimales : topiques difficiles d’u...

Introduction Chez les patients immunodéprimés, l’histoplasmose disséminée (HD) peut mettre en jeu le pronostic vital. Nous en rapportons 2 cas ayant mimé des poussées de lupus érythémateux systémique (LES). Observations Cas 1 : une femme de 40 ans, vivant en Guyane, suivie pour un LES, greffée rénale sous prednisone (20 mg/j), tacrolimus et mycoph...

Introduction Les streptocoques béta-hémolytiques (SBH) représentent 30 à 40 % des bactéries responsables de dermohypodermites bactériennes nécrosantes – fasciites nécrosantes (DHBN-FN). Il s’agit principalement de Streptococcus pyogenes, SBH du groupe A (SGA) mais aussi de Streptococcus agalactiae, SBH du groupe B (SGB) et de Streptococcus dysgalac...

Candida auris is an emerging, multidrug resistant pathogen, responsible for invasive hospital-acquired infections. Flucytosine is an effective anti- Candida drug, but which cannot be used as a monotherapy because of the risk of development of resistant mutants during treatment. It is therefore noteworthy to test possible combinations with flucytosi...

Background: Although substantial efforts have been made to investigate about the composition of the microbiota, fungi that constitute the mycobiota play a pivotal role in maintaining microbial communities and physiological processes in the body. Objectives: Here, we conducted an international-survey focusing on laboratory's current procedures re...

Among 419 consecutive allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant recipients, we observed 17 (4.0%) cases of toxoplasmosis at a median time of day 45 (range, 6 to 322) after transplant. Seven of these 17 cases occurred before day 30 after transplant. Because of the lack of PCR screening and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole prophylaxis before engraftment,...

Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) is a life-threatening disease in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) recipients. Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) is the preferred prophylaxis but has significant toxicity. We assessed 139 consecutive HCT patients for PCP prophylaxis in our center. According to our procedures, TMP-SMX sh...

Although the Sensitrite Yeast-One (SYO) and Etest methods are widely utilized, interpretive criteria are not available for triazole susceptibility testing of Candida or Aspergillus species. We collected fluconazole, itraconazole, posaconazole and voriconazole SYO and Etest MICs from 39 laboratories representing all continents for (method-agent-depe...

Objectives: To determine the Etest-based epidemiological cut-off values (ECVs) for antifungal agents against the most frequent yeast and Aspergillus fumigatus species isolated in 12 French hospitals. Methods: For each antifungal agent, the Etest MICs in yeast and A. fumigatus isolates from 12 French laboratories were retrospectively collected fr...

Epidemiology of opportunistic infections (OI) after kidney allograft transplantation in the modern era of immunosuppression and the use of OI prevention strategies are poorly described. We retrospectively analyzed a single-center cohort on kidney allograft adult recipients transplanted between January 2008 and December 2013. The control group inclu...

Cryptosporidium spp. Enterocytozoon bieneusi and Encephalitozoon intestinalis are opportunistic pathogens responsible for gastrointestinal diseases. We evaluated the ParaGENIE Crypto-Micro Real-Time PCR kit (Ademtech, France), the first CE-IVD compliant PCR assay available for these pathogens. This study was conducted blindly against a reference pa...

Background Autosomal-dominant signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) deficiency predisposes to recurrent bacterial pneumonia, complicated by bronchiectasis and cavitations. Aspergillosis is a major cause of morbidity in these patients. However, its diagnosis, classification, and treatment are challenging. Objective We aimed to...

Background Liver transplant recipients are at high risk of developing invasive aspergillosis and in particular by Aspergillus fumigatus which is the most commonly encountered species in this population. Other non-fumigatus Aspergillus species with reduced susceptibility to antifungal drugs can also be involved. Accurate identification associated to...

Introduction Malgré leur excellente activité anti-parasitaire, il est possible que l’ivermectine (IVM) et désormais la moxidectine (MOX) - toutes deux de la famille des lactones macrocycliques - soient utilisées de manière suboptimale dans la gale. Une meilleure connaissance de leur distribution dans la peau, et notamment dans le stratum corneum (S...

Introduction Les patients diabétiques sont à risque de mucormycose, se manifestant habituellement par des lésions nécrotiques de la face. L’incidence dans cette population a augmenté de 9 % entre 2001 et 2006. Nous rapportons une forme clinique rare de cette pathologie. Observations Un dispositif à délivrance continue sous-cutanée sur 72 h d’insul...

Mucormycoses are life-threatening fungal diseases that affect a variety of patients including those with diabetes mellitus or hematological malignancies. The responsible agents, the Mucorales, are opportunistic pathogens originating from the environment such as soil or decaying organic matter. The aim of the present study was to assess the prevalen...

Introduction:Aspergillus fumigatus (Af) and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (Sm) are pathogenic microorganisms, which coexist in the respiratory tract of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. We recently developed an in vitro model of mixed biofilm associating Af ATCC 13073-GFP (Af13073) and Sm ATCC 13637 (Sm13637) and described an antibiosis effect. The pre...

Background: Fungi are increasingly recognized for their potential role in contributing to pulmonary damage in Cystic Fibrosis (CF). We therefore designed a prospective international study aimed at (i) determining the prevalence of fungi isolated from sputum samples collected from a large CF population, (ii) comparing the performance of different me...

Background: Genotyping is needed to explore the link between clinical cases from colonization of invasive aspergillosis (IA) and major building construction. Attempts to correlate Aspergillus fumigatus strains from clinical infection or colonization with those found in the environment remain controversial due to the lack of a large prospective stu...