Detection of Aspergillus fumigatus by Polymerase Chain Reaction(PCR)

Aspergillosis refers to fungi infections of the respiratory tract caused by Aspergillus species especially Aspergillus fumigatus.Infection of A. fumigatus were increased in last few years , due to either resistances to antibiotics or to influence of other factors such as other fungal infections.The aims of the present study were to review the impact of Aspergillus fumigatus in Aspergillosis cases, and study the role of Singleplex PCR for amplification of ITS1,ITS4 of rRNA gene in the detection of fungal isolate . In this study One hundred sputum samples were collected from patients admitted to the specialize chest and respiratory diseases center / Baghdad who were suffering from respiratory problems. During these studied, molds were isolation and identification based on Conventional method (Direct microscopy by using 10% KOH, and fungal culture was done on Sabouraud Dextrose agar supplemented with chloramphenicol and on Czapek-Dox agar incubated at 37°C and examined for 3-7 days then macroscopic, microscopic examination of the colony by(lactophenol cotton blue stain )and molecular methods by using Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)technique foridentification. The 10% KOH examination was positive for 35 cases while laboratory culturing was positive for 53 cases. Aspergillus sp were isolated from 44(83%) patients; A. fumigatus was isolated in 23 (42.4%) patients while A. flavus, A. niger, and A. terreus were isolated from 11 (20.08%), (13.2%) and 3 (5.7%) patients respectively, also isolated Penicillium spp. at percentage 1(1.9%).. In this study.The ages of participants ranged from 10-70years with a mean age of 34years, the males were more susceptible for fungal infection were recorded 35/53 (66.3), compared to females were 18/53 (33.96).The infection of fungi were more prevalent in ages 30-40recorded 26(53.06%) followed by ages 40-50 ,13(26.5), while the lowest infection recorded in age group 10- 20 years was 2(2.04%). DNA isolated from twenty three A.fumigatus isolates was used as template and the specific of oligonucleotide primer sequences were used in conventional PCR to detect the presence of internal transcribed spacer region ( ITS) region of the rRNA gene for Aspergillus fumigates. The results of the PCR amplification of the rRNA gene showed that, this gene was present in 19 samples out 23 positive samples which isolation with a PCR product size of approximated 385 bp, while 4 samples out 23 positive samples showed negative results for the presence of t