Mucormycosis: Modern diagnostics and treatment, existing problems and new trends in antifungal therapy.

Over the last decade, the introduction of new antifungal drugs and diagnostic procedures has improved the prognosis of hematological patients with invasive fungal disease (IFD), primarily invasive aspergillosis. Despite effective antifungal prophylaxis against the most common IFD caused by Aspergillus spp., rates of IFD due to rare pathogens being resistant to most antifungal drugs, including mucormycosis have been increased. The main group of patients having a high risk of mucormycosis is deeply immunocompromised patients who received chemotherapy for acute leukemia, patients undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, or treated with corticosteroids for graft-versushost disease. Currently, the urgency of this complication is significantly higher due to COVID-19 pandemic and extensive use of corticosteroids for the treatment of COVID-19. Despite the fact that the criteria for the diagnosis of IFD EORTC/MSG 2008 and 2020 have been developed and implemented into practice in most countries, mucormycosis still remains a difficult-to-diagnose IFD, where the factor of rapid diagnosis is a main factor of treatment success. Medications available for the treatment of IFD include polyenes, triazoles, and echinocandins. For a long time, the drug of choice for the treatment of mucormycosis was liposomal amphotericin B. However, a new effective drug has been approved for the treatment of both mucormycosis and IFD, caused by multiple pathogens - isavuconazole. This review presents new data on the epidemiology of mucormycosis, diagnosis approaches and current international treatment guidelines.Copyright © 2021, Interregional Association for Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved.

Post-Coronavirus Disease Mucormycosis: Predisposing Factors and Possible Treatment: A Narrative Review

Mucormycosis, commonly known as black fungus, is a life-threatening fungal infection be-longing to the order Mucorales. It affects individuals with an impaired immune response or immune disorders such as diabetes mellitus, induced immunosuppression, hematological cancers, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or who have undergone organ transplantation. The symptoms of black fungus in-clude difficulty in breathing, blurred vision, coughing out blood, chest pain, and blackening over the area of the nose. Tissue necrosis is the main symptom of this infection. Its prevalence is increasing day by day and has been observed in vulnerable patients, including patients suffering from COVID-19 (corona-virus) and those who have been recovered. It has been observed that black fungus cases are increasing in recovered COVID patients, and various cases of white and yellow fungus are also reported. The treatment approach includes the use of antifungal agents, triazoles, surgery, combination therapy, etc. This review describes the clinical manifestation, predisposing factors, and treatment strategies of mucormycosis.Copyright © 2022 Bentham Science Publishers.

New experimental low-cost nanoscience technology for formulation of silver nanoparticles-activated carbon composite as a promising antiviral, biocide, and efficient catalyst

A simple low-cost one-pot photodeposition synthesis with no hazardous reactants or products is used to make silver nanoparticles-activated carbon composite (SNPs@AC). The SNPs are homogenously and photodeposited and absorbed into the activated carbon matrix. Both SNPs and SNPs@AC composite have particle sizes around 10 nm and 100 nm, respectively. The SNPs@AC composite showed good antiviral activity to VERO (ATCC ccl-81) cells. Zeta potential of SNPs@AC composite is −25 mV, showing that this colloidal system is electrically stable and resistant to coagulation. For many Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, the SNPs@AC composite demonstrated strong antibacterial efficacy. The SNPs@AC composite has 75.72 percent anti-inflammatory effect at concentration 500 µg/mL. This composite has a maximum non-toxic concentration (MNTC) of 78.125 g/mL, which corresponds to antiviral activity of up to 96.7 percent against hepatitis A. virus (HAV). It is suggested as a candidate for pharmaceutical formulations, such as integration into the manufacture of N95 masks for COVID-19 infection protection. Concentration 160 μg/mL SNPs@AC composite has antioxidant activity 42.74% percent. The SNPs@AC composite exhibited selective catalytic activity for the organosynthesis hydrazination reaction of 4-chloro-3, 5-di-nitro-benzo-triflouride, giving 1-hydroxy-4-nitro-6-trifluoro-methyl benzotriazole, a common antiviral drug for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). SNPs@composite's well-defined pores provide suitable active sites for binding reactants: 4-Cl-3, 5-di-NO2-benzotriflouride, and hydrazine, which react to create 1-hydroxy-4-nitro-6-trifluoromethyl benzotriazole, which diffuses into solution away from the catalyst surface, leaving the catalyst surface unaffected.