Mucormycosis and COVID-19-Associated Mucormycosis: Insights of a Deadly but Neglected Mycosis

Abstract

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has quickly become a health threat worldwide, with high mortality and morbidity among patients with comorbidities. This viral infection promotes the perfect setting in patients for the development of opportunistic infections, such as those caused by fungi. Mucormycosis, a rare but deadly fungal infection, has recently increased its incidence, especially in endemic areas, since the onset of the pandemic. COVID-19-associated mucormycosis is an important complication of the pandemic because it is a mycosis hard to diagnose and treat, causing concern among COVID-19-infected patients and even in the already recovered population. The risk factors for the development of mucormycosis in these patients are related to the damage caused by the SARS-CoV-2 itself, the patient’s overstimulated immune response, and the therapy used to treat COVID-19, causing alterations such as hyperglycemia, acidosis, endothelial and lung damage, and immunosuppression. In this review, the molecular aspects of mucormycosis and the main risk factors for the development of COVID-19-associated mucormycosis are explained to understand this virus–fungi–host interaction and highlight the importance of this neglected mycosis.

Incidencia De Infecciones Fúngicas Invasivas Asociadas a Covid-19

“…La mucormicosis es una infección angioinvasiva rápida, cuyos signos y síntomas ocurren en un periodo menor a 5 días e incluyen inflamación, dolor en la región, pérdida de la función ocular en infecciones rinocerebrales, necrosis, presencia de hifas en tejido por lo que se tiene que debridar y realizar histología (Ahmadikia et al, 2021). El tratamiento de elección para la mucormicosis incluye en primer lugar anfotericina B, seguida de isavuconazol, posaconazol e itraconazol, aunque debe considerarse que estos tienen diferente tasa de éxito debido a la variabilidad de los agentes etiológicos y por lo tanto en la susceptibilidad al fármaco (García-Carnero & Mora-Montes, 2022). Usualmente, en etapas tempranas una debridación quirúrgica acompañada del tratamiento con antifúngicos incrementa las TLATEMOANI, No.…”

Mucorales and Mucormycosis: Recent Insights and Future Prospects

“…This disease is the third-most-common angio-invasive fungal infection, following candidiasis and aspergillosis, in patients with hematological and allogeneic stem cell transplantation [ 2 ]. With an aging population, the increased number of immunocompromised patients, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the number of individuals susceptible to Mucorales infections is on the rise [ 3 ]. The noticeable increase in mucormycosis cases, a mortality rate of 90% for disseminated infections, and the absence of effective antifungal treatments have triggered widespread concern regarding this emerging disease [ 4 , 5 ].…”

Molecular docking studies of different phytochemicals obtained from medicinal Plants of Uttarakhand region for identification of potential inhibitors against mucormycosis causing fungal species

“…Furthermore, the rapid speed of spread of mucormycosis can be devastating. Even a 12-hour delay in diagnosis can be fatal and 50% of cases of mucormycosis have historically been diagnosed only after death (Skiada et al, 2011;García-Carnero et al, 2022) which makes the situation more alarming. 70% of the cases of mucormycosis are known to be reported from Rhizopus species (Roden et al,2005;Ibrahim et al, 2012).…”