Emily is a health news writer based in London, United Kingdom. She holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Durham University and a master's degree in clinical and therapeutic neuroscience from Oxford University. She has worked in science communication, medical writing and as a local news reporter while undertaking journalism training.
The fungus, called Rhodosporidiobolus fluvialis, was found in clinical samples from two unconnected hospital patients. In experiments, the researchers found that the yeast was resistant to several first-line antifungal drugs at higher temperatures — around that of the human body. This temperature also gave rise to"hypervirulent mutants" capable of causing more-severe disease in lab mice.
As part of their treatments, the patients were given common antifungal drugs, including fluconazole and caspofungin. Lab studies by the team later found that R. fluvialis is resistant to both these drugs. Invasive fungal infections, which attack tissues deep in the body, mostly affect people whose immune systems are weakened, due to HIV infection or as a result of taking immunosuppressant drugs, for example. Notably, the 61-year-old infected with R. fluvialis had been immunosuppressed, and the 85-year-old had diabetes, which can hinder immune function.
If yeasts like R. fluvialis are more likely to become virulent and drug resistant at high temperatures, global warming could potentially drive the evolution of new, dangerous fungal pathogens, the team wrote in the paper.
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