Dermatopathology and the Diagnosis of Fungal Infections

Natural Sources of Therapeutic Agents Used in Skin Conditions

Skin conditions are numerous and often have a major impact on patients' quality of life, and effective and safe treatment is very important. The conventional drugs used for skin diseases are usually corticosteroids and antimicrobial products that can induce various side effects, especially with long-term use, which is why researchers are studying alternatives, especially biologically active natural products. Three products caught our attention: bee venom (BV), due to reported experimental results showing anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, antioxidant, antimycotic, and anticancer effects, Ficus carica (FC) due to its demonstrated antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory action, and finally Geranium essential oil (GEO), with proven antifungal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant effects. Following a review of the literature, we produced this paper, which presents a review of the potential therapeutic applications of the three products in combating various skin conditions and for skin care, because BV, FC, and GEO have common pharmacological actions (anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antioxidant). We also focused on studying the safety of the topical use of BV, FC, and GEO, and new approaches to this. This paper presents the use of these natural therapeutic agents to treat patients with conditions such as vitiligo, melasma, and melanoma, as well as their use in treating dermatological conditions in patients with diabetes.

A clinical prevalence of dermatophytic mycoses with an assessment of its clinical manifestations in a tertiary care hospital at Salem, South India

BACKGROUND

Dermatophytosis is very common among all age groups throughout the world. The incidence of the same is increasing on a steady basis.

AIM

Estimating the clinical prevalence of dermatophytes mycoses among the patients visiting the outpatient unit and assessing its distinct manifestations.

METHODOLOGY

A prospective observational study was conducted with the patients attending the Skin and STD outpatient unit of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Salem. A total of 3068 outpatients attended the department, of which 420 patients were diagnosed with dermatophytic mycoses and were taken for investigating the prevalence.

RESULTS

A total of 420 dermatophytosis patients were included giving a percentage prevalence of 13.69%. There were more female patients (n = 213, 50.71%) than males (n = 207, 49.29%). The most common afflicted age group was 31-40 years (n = 99, 50.71%). Most of the patients had an atypical lesion called tinea incognita (n = 265, 63.09%) where there was no typical classic appearance of dermatophytic infections. The most prevalent clinical manifestation was tinea corporis (n = 73, 17.38%) followed by tinea cruris (n = 69, 16.43%). There were more newly diagnosed dermatophytosis cases (n = 326) than the previously diagnosed cases (n = 94).

CONCLUSION

This study concludes that dermatophytic mycoses were more prevalent among females than males and among the age groups of 31-40 years. The most common clinical presentation was tinea incognita followed by tinea corporis.

Recent developments in membrane targeting antifungal agents to mitigate antifungal resistance

Fungal infections cause severe and life-threatening complications especially in immunocompromised individuals. Antifungals targeting cellular machinery and cell membranes including azoles are used in clinical practice to manage topical to systemic fungal infections. However, continuous exposure to clinically used antifungal agents in managing the fungal infections results in the development of multi-drug resistance via adapting different kinds of intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms. The unique chemical composition of fungal membranes presents attractive targets for antifungal drug discovery as it is difficult for fungal cells to modify the membrane targets for emergence of drug resistance. Here, we discussed available antifungal drugs with their detailed mechanism of action and described different antifungal resistance mechanisms. We further emphasized structure-activity relationship studies of membrane-targeting antifungal agents, and classified membrane-targeting antifungal agents on the basis of their core scaffold with detailed pharmacological properties. This review aims to pique the interest of potential researchers who could explore this interesting and intricate fungal realm.