Trichomoniasis, the most common non-viral sexually transmitted infection worldwide, is caused by the protozoon Trichomonas vaginalis. The 5- nitroimidazole drugs, of which metronidazole is the most prescribed, are the only effective drugs to treat trichomoniasis. Resistance against metronidazole is increasingly reported among T. vaginalis isolates. T. vaginalis can establish an endosymbiosis with two Mycoplasma species, Mycoplasma hominis and Candidatus Mycoplasma girerdii, whose presence has been demonstrated to influence several aspects of the protozoan pathobiology. The role of M. hominis in T. vaginalis resistance to metronidazole is controversial, while the influence of Ca.M. girerdii has never been investigated. In this work, we investigate the possible correlation between the presence of Ca.M. girerdii and/or M. hominis and the in vitro drug susceptibility in a large group of T. vaginalis isolated in Italy and in Vietnam. We also evaluated, via RNA-seq analysis, the expression of protozoan genes involved in metronidazole resistance in a set of syngenic T. vaginalis strains, differing only for the presence/absence of the two Mycoplasmas. Our results show that the presence of M. hominis significantly increases the sensitivity to metronidazole in T. vaginalis and affects gene expression. On the contrary, the symbiosis with Candidatus Mycoplasma girerdii seems to have no effect on metronidazole resistance in T. vaginalis.

Background: Trichophyton is the common genus in dermatophytes fungi in the world. These fungi secreted virulence enzymes that help them take nutrition from the host. Objectives: 1. To determinate enzymes secretion ability of Trichophyton species isolated from patients, including lipase, phospholipase, and protease. 2. To evaluate the correlation between enzyme secretion ability and dermatomycoses clinical forms. Material and methods: Trichophyton species were isolated from the cultivation samples of dermatophytosis patients. Enzyme production experiments were checked by cultivating fungi into suitable solid agar media. Results: The prevalence of Trichophyton spp. producing protease, lipase, and phospholipase were 96.1%%, 86.2%, and 21.6%, respectively. There were 78.4% of fungal strains that produced both lipase and protease, and 17.6% of fungal strains produced three enzymes. The ability to produce protease of T. rubrum was higher than T. mentagrophytes, and there was no statistically significant difference between lipase and phospholipase activities of these two fungal species. There was no difference between the fungal enzymatic activities and dermatophytosis clinical forms. Conclusion: Trichophyton species isolated from patients attending Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital produced more protease and lipase than phospholipase. T. rubrum strains showed higher ability protease produce than T. mentagrophytes. Key words: dermatophytes, Trichophyton spp., fungal enzyme

Trichomonosis is the most common non-viral sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the world. Due to the development of metronidazole-resistant isolates, therapeutic alternatives to 5-nitroimidazole are being investigated. T. vaginalis can be naturally infected with Mycoplasma hominis, Mycoplasma girerdii and Trichomonas vaginalis virus (TVV). Objective: 1) The essential oil from Melaleuca quinquenervia was used to test the anti-trichomonas activity. 2) Symbiosis was checked to determine whether there is any correlation between T. vaginalis – infected and T. vaginalis - free with esssential oil. Materials and methods: A total of 32 T. vaginalis isolates from Hue province subjected to susceptibility testing against essential oils by broth microdilution method. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect the presense of M. hominis and M. girerdii. TVV haboring protozoan was identified by total RNA extraction. Result: The M. quinquenervia essential oil showed antitrichomonal activity at the mean of MIC at 0.15 ± 0.07% after 24 hours and 0.09 ± 0.05% after 48 hours. There was no significant differences in MIC of essential oil to T. vaginalis-microorganisminfected and T. vaginalis-free. Conclusion: M. quinquenervia essential oil can be used as potential therapeutic natural resource for development of antitrichomonal drugs, to not only T. vaginalis-free isolates but also T. vaginalis-infected isolates.