Case series: Alcohol intolerance with Coprine-like syndrome after consumption of the mushroom Lepiota aspera (Pers.:Fr.) Quél., 1886 (Freckled Dapperling).

Alcohol intolerance after consumption of wild mushrooms is a recognized phenomenon. This is best understood with Coprinus atramentarius. Its active component Coprine blocks enzymatic ethanol degradation at the stage of acetaldehyde, which is responsible for the well-recognized symptoms. Here, we report three events in five patients experiencing the same symptoms after consumption of self-collected Lepiota aspera. All had mistaken L. aspera for edible mushrooms as Amanita rubescens or Macrolepiota procera. In all events, L. aspera was identified by mycologists and no other mushrooms were involved. The mushrooms were well sautéed and tolerated well until an alcoholic beverage was consumed. Then within few minutes facial flushing, throbbing headache, tachycardia, and shortness of breath all occurred. The symptoms abated within a few hours with no sequelae but could be re-provoked by further alcohol consumption up to 48 h later. This syndrome appears to be identical with the one known from C. atramentarius. However, the toxin in L. aspera or its mechanism is not yet known.

Rhizomucor variabilis var. regularior and Hormographiella aspergillata infections in a leukemic bone marrow transplant recipient with refractory neutropenia.

Rhizomucor variabilis and Hormographiella aspergillata rarely cause human infections. This report details a fatal case of a 14-year-old female with leukemia posthematopoietic cell transplant and relapse with refractory pancytopenia. The patient first developed an R. variabilis var. regularior palate infection and later developed a cutaneous H. aspergillata infection while on posaconazole and caspofungin therapy.

Hormographiella aspergillata keratomycosis in a dog.

A 4-year-old, female, Border Collie was presented to the University of Bern Veterinary Teaching Hospital, because of a corneal lesion of 10 days duration. The axial cornea presented a whitish fluorescein-positive plaque with irregular margins. A diagnosis of keratomycosis was made based on cytology. Medical therapy with local broad-spectrum antibiotic and fluconazole was instituted. After 1 week of treatment, the improvement was deemed unsatisfactory. Therefore, a lamellar keratectomy and conjunctival pedicle flap were performed. After surgery, the cornea healed uneventfully. Histology confirmed the diagnosis of keratomycosis. The fungus could not be grown in culture and a precise etiological diagnosis could only be obtained with genetic identification of the fungus. A PCR technique was used to amplify the fungal genome from the cornea. Hormographiella aspergillata, the asexual reproductive form of the basidiomycete Coprinopsis cinerea, was identified. As advised in human medicine, we encourage the use of this molecular technique to obtain an early species diagnosis, allowing targeted medical therapy.

Fatal pulmonary infection in a leukaemic patient caused by Hormographiella aspergillata.

A case of autopsy-proven fungal pneumonia in a relapsed leukaemia patient is reported. The fungus Hormographiella aspergillata was cultured from two bronchoalveolar fluid samples and identified through morphological examination and ITS2 sequence analysis. In addition, galactomannan was detected in eight consecutive serum samples, which suggested a co-infection with Aspergillus species. The patient was treated with caspofungin.

Fatal pulmonary infection caused by the basidiomycete Hormographiella aspergillata.

A fatal case of a pulmonary infection caused by Hormographiella aspergillata, the anamorph of the mushroom Coprinus cinereus, is reported for a patient receiving treatment for a second relapse of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The filamentous basidiomycete was identified with restriction fragment length polymorphism patterns of PCR-amplified internally transcribed spacers and small subunit ribosomal DNA with four restriction enzymes. The patient failed to respond to treatment with amphotericin B and itraconazole. The fungus was cultured from the lungs at autopsy: the MIC of amphotericin B for the fungus was low (0.5 mg/liter), and that of itraconazole was high (8 mg/liter).

Coprinaceae en el campus de la Universidad Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Pe., Brasil / Coprinaceae at Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE., Brazil

En este trabajo se determinan los hongos superiores (Coprinaceae), que habitan en el Campus de la Universidad Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife, PE., Brasil. Se estudiaron nueve especies comprendidas en las subfamilias coprinoideae y panaeoloideae, con los géneros coprinus y panaeolus respectivamente. Coprinus está representado por las especies c. auricomus, c. brunneo-fibrillosus, c.fimetarius, c. jamaicensis, c. lagopus, c. niveus, c. plicatilis y c. subimpatiens. Del género panaeolus sólo fue identificada una especie: panaeolus antillarium. C.auricomus, c. brunneo-fibrillosus, c. jamaicensis y c., subimpatiens, son aparentemente las primeras citas para Brasil

Comparison of structure and activities of peroxidases from Coprinus cinereus, Coprinus macrorhizus and Arthromyces ramosus.

Initial structural and kinetic data suggested that peroxidases from Coprinus cinereus, Coprinus macrorhizus and Arthromyces ramosus were similar. Therefore they were characterized more fully. The three peroxidases were purified to RZ 2.5 and showed immunochemical identity as well as an identical M(r) of 38,000, pI about 3.5 and similar amino acid compositions. The N-termini were blocked for amino acid sequencing. The peroxidases had similar retention volumes by anion-exchange and gel-filtration chromatography. All peroxidases showed multiple peaks by Concanavalin A-Sepharose chromatography. The Concanavalin A-Sepharose profiles were different and depended furthermore on a fermentation batch. Tryptic peptide maps were very similar except for one peptide. This peptide contained an N-linked glycan composed of varying ratios of glucosamine and mannose for the three peroxidases. Rate constants and their pH dependence were the same for the three peroxidases using guaiacol or iodide as reducing substrates. We conclude that peroxidases from Coprinus cinereus, Coprinus macrorhizus and Arthromyces ramosus are most likely identical in their amino acid sequences, but deviate in glycosylation which, apparently, has no influence on the reaction rates of the enzyme. We suggest, that the Coprinus fungi express one peroxidase only in contrast to the lignin-degrading white-rot Basidiomycetes, which produce multiple peroxidase isozymes.