The role of SARS-CoV-2 immunosuppression and the therapy used to manage COVID-19 disease in the emergence of opportunistic fungal infections: A review.

Since December 2019 SARS-CoV-2 infections have affected millions of people worldwide. Along with the increasing number of COVID-19 patients, the number of cases of opportunistic fungal infections among the COVID-19 patients is also increasing. There have been reports of the cases of aspergillosis and candidiasis in the COVID-19 patients. The COVID-19 patients have also been affected by rare fungal infections such as histoplasmosis, pneumocystosis, mucormycosis and cryptococcosis. These fungal infections are prolonging the stay of COVID-19 patients in hospital. In this study several published case reports, case series, prospective and retrospective studies were investigated to explore and report the updated information regarding candidiasis, crytptococcosis, aspergillosis, mucormycosis, histoplasmosis, and pneumocystosis infections in COVID-19 patients. In this review, the risk factors of these co-infections in COVID-19 patients have been reported. There have been reports that the comorbidities and the treatment with corticoids, monoclonal antibodies, use of mechanical ventilation, and use of antibiotics during COVID-19 management are associated with the emergence of fungal infections in the COVID-19 patients. Hence, this review analyses the role of these therapies and comorbidities in the emergence of these fungal infections among COVID-19 patients. This review will help to comprehend if these fungal infections are the result of the co-morbidities, and treatment protocol followed to manage COVID-19 patients or directly due to the SARS-CoV-2 infection. The analysis of all these factors will help to understand their role in fungal infections among COVID-19 patients which can be valuable to the scientific community.

Total RNA isolation from recalcitrant yeast cells.

Conventional methods of RNA isolation are not suitable for yeast cells from stationary phase and fermentation broth. Methods specially reported for such cells are cumbersome and do not lend themselves for use with large number of samples. Here we report a facile method of RNA isolation from such recalcitrant yeast cells. The entire procedure is performed in microcentrifuge tubes and, thus, is ideal for faster processing of multiple samples. The method consistently gives high quality and quantity of RNA, which was found to be suitable for downstream applications such as quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Besides Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the method was found to work equally well with other yeast species; thus, it is likely to have wider applicability.