Trichophyton tonsurans: the need for enhanced infection control measures in the pediatric population

Development and Application of a High-Throughput Screening Method to Evaluate Antifungal Activity against Trichophyton tonsurans

There exist relatively few drug classes on the market to treat dermatophyte infections. This investigation was designed to develop and validate high-throughput methodology for screening and confirmation of chemicals for activity against Trichophyton tonsurans. Growth characteristics were examined on two platforms (96- and 384-well) in three media at eight spore concentrations over a period of up to 120 h. Microspectrophotometry was used to automate plate reads. The 384-well platform was used to screen more than 7000 compounds from six chemical libraries. Z-scores for optical density relative to positive growth controls were used to flag compounds of interest and activity confirmed in separate assays. The final conditions selected for both screening and confirmation with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) determination were growth for 48 h at 32 °C in SabDex with 1 × 10(4) spores per reaction. Sensitivity and specificity averaged 99.2% (range, 95.2%-100%) and 99.8% (range, 99.1%-100%), respectively. MICs for known antifungals were similar to those reported by others using Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute methods. Several novel compound classes were identified to have activity against T. tonsurans with potency comparable to known antifungals. A robust, reproducible assay is described that permits high-throughput screening in T. tonsurans.

Trichophyton tonsurans scalp carriage among wrestlers in a national competition in Turkey

Trichophyton tonsurans tinea gladiatorum is an emerging epidemic among combat-sport athletes across the globe. In the present study, we investigated the prevalence of symptomatic and asymptomatic dermatophytic infections among wrestlers in the National Greco-Roman Championship in Turkey. In total, 194 wrestlers from 32 provinces and 72 clubs were examined for scalp, trunk, groin, and toe web dermatophytic infections. We also administered a questionnaire to obtain information on the participants' lifestyles, wrestling characteristics, and risk factors for dermatophytic infections. The hairbrush method was used for scalp and trunk sampling, whereas a cotton swab was used for groin, toe web, and mat sampling. Three wrestling mats in the gymnasium were surveyed for dermatophytes using the touch preparation method. A total of 17 (8.8%) wrestlers harbored dermatophytes, and 22 strains were isolated: 13 (59.1%) T. tonsurans and 9 (40.9%) T. rubrum. These isolates were found on the scalp (8), trunk (2), forearm (1), hand (1), groin (3), and feet (7). In addition, we recovered 8 dermatophyte strains from the 150 mat samples (5.3%): T. rubrum in 6 samples (75%) and T. tonsurans in two samples (25%). T. tonsurans was only recovered from 11 out of 194 (5.7%) wrestlers. Scalp carriage represents the predominant (72.7%) clinical picture of a T. tonsurans infection in these Greco-Roman wrestlers in Turkey.