SPECIES IDENTIFICATION, ANTIFUNGAL SUSCEPTIBILITY TESTING AND GENETIC VARIABILITY AMONG CANDIDA SPECIES ISOLATED FROM CLINICAL SAMPLES

Abstract

Candida albicans is an opportunistic pathogen that usually lives as commensal in the healthy human host. The most common infecting species is C. albicans where as other non albicans species are C. glabrata, C. parapsilosis, C. tropicalis and C. krusei also causes various clinical diseases. Candidemia is the fourth leading cause of bloodstream infections and carries 35–55% mortality. There is increase in the incidence of candidiasis cases has also been reported in immunocompromised individuals associated with non albicans species, such as C. glabrata, C. krusei, C. tropicalis and C. parapsilosis. The main risk factor is Invasive candidiasis, Urinary candidiasis, gastrointestinal candidiasis, Respiratory candidiasis and vulvo-vaginal candidiasis. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A total of 30 samples were collected from zonal hospital Solan and college students of SILB Solan. Candida species were isolated from 24 samples while 6 samples were found negative. Samples were further checked for phenotypic characterization such as Germ tube test, pseudohyphae production, Chlamydospore production, morphology on CHROM agar, sugar fermentation test, sugar assimilation test. Antifungal susceptibility testing is also done for the positive samples. Genotypic characterization is done by PCR and RFLP.

KEYWORDS: C. parapsilosis, C. tropicalis, C. krusei and C. glabrata