ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>XI International Meeting on Paracoccidioidomycosis</TITLE><link rel=STYLESHEET type=text/css href=css.css></HEAD><BODY aLink=#ff0000 bgColor=#FFFFFF leftMargin=0 link=#000000 text=#000000 topMargin=0 vLink=#000000 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0><table align=center width=700 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td align=left bgcolor=#cccccc valign=top width=550><font face=arial size=2><strong><font face=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif size=3><font size=1>XI International Meeting on Paracoccidioidomycosis</font></font></strong><font face=Verdana size=1><b><br></b></font><font face=Verdana, Arial,Helvetica, sans-serif size=1><strong> </strong></font></font></td><td align=right bgcolor=#cccccc valign=top width=150><font face=arial size=2><strong><font face=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif size=1><font  size=1>Resume:135-1</font></em></font></strong></font></td></tr><tr><td colspan=2><br><br><table align=center width=700><tr><td><b>Investigação</b><br><table width="100%"><tr><td width="60">135-1</td><td><b>The Dark World of Black Fungi: A Major Area of Concern</b></td></tr><tr><td valign=top>Authors:</td><td><u>Flavio Queiroz Telles </u>  (HC-UFPR - Department of Public Health, Hospital de Clinicas, Federal U) ; Flavio de Queiroz Telles   (HC-UFPR - Department of Public Health, Hospital de Clinicas, Federal U) </td></tr></table><p align=justify><b><font size=2>Abstract</font></b><p align=justify class=tres><font size=2>Melanized or black fungi refer to a heterogeneous group of darkly pigmented fungi, widely distributed in the environment, that occasionally cause infection in humans. These agents remain uncommon causes of infection in humans but have become increasingly recognized in a wide variety of clinical syndromes.
The clinical spectrum of human infections caused by melanized fungi is wide and may affect any organic site. Etiologic agents, as well as diseases caused by them are heterogeneous in nature, including superficial, cutaneous, subcutaneous and systemic phaeohyphomycosis,fungemia, allergic and invasive sinusitis, mycetoma and chromoblastomycosis. It is remarkable that some agents like Exophiala jeanselmei, can cause more than on disease. To date more than 150 species of melanized fungi have been reported as pathogens in humans and other animals. They may affect either normal host as well as immunocompromised individuals. Melanized fungi are also denominated as black fungi, pheoid or dematiaceous. This wide and diverse group of pathogens present different amount of melanin in their cell wall.  Melanin is a ubiquitous compound found in many microbes and animals. Its functions are varied but are based on the unique molecular characteristics of its structure, which make it an extremely stable molecule, resistant to a variety of destructive physicochemical processes. Melanin together with other virulence factors, as intracellular lipids and thermo tolerance, is considered one of the main virulence factors of dematiaceous and it may confer a protective advantage to the black fungi leading its surviving in the hostile environment of the human host . Significant advances have been achieved over the last decade in our knowledge of diseases caused by melanized fungi.  Although chromoblastomycosis is the most frequent disease in this group, phaeohyphomycosis and invasive sinusitis are emerging especially in cancer and other immnocompromised patients and  although rare, life-threatening infections may be seen even in individuals with no apparent risk factors, especially in cases of brain abscess. Diagnosis depends on a high degree of clinical and epidemiological suspicion and careful mycological and pathologicalexamination of clinical specimens. Molecular diagnostic techniques are progressing but are not standardized or reliable for the diverse species encountered.


</font></p><br><b>Keyword: </b>&nbsp;Melanized fungi, chromoblastomycosis, phaeohyphomycosis, melanin, azoles</td></tr></table></tr></td></table></body></html>