TY - JOUR
T1 - New Breath Diagnostics for Fungal Disease
AU - Diefenderfer, Jenna
AU - Bean, Heather D.
AU - Higgins Keppler, Emily A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Purpose of Review: Diagnosis of fungal disease etiology is often difficult, compounded by inaccurate or delayed diagnostic methods. Breath-based biomarkers are being investigated as a novel target for clinical diagnostics. This review aims to summarize recent advancements, identify gaps, and discuss future research directions for breath-based fungal diagnostics. Recent Findings: Studies conducted in vitro, in animal models, and in human breath show fungi produce a large and diverse volatile metabolome. Recent studies on Aspergillus, Candida, Rhizopus, Coccidioides, Trichoderma, Fusarium, and Alternaria demonstrate the feasibility of identifying infectious etiology using fungal volatile profiles. However, the majority of data on fungal volatiles come from in vitro analyses, which have limited translatability to in vivo infections; thus, future studies should focus on in vivo volatile profiles to develop breath tests for diagnosing infections and monitoring antifungal therapy. Summary: This review describes recent studies that examine volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as biomarkers to detect and differentiate pathogenic fungi, highlighting the feasibility of breath-based diagnostics for fungal disease.
AB - Purpose of Review: Diagnosis of fungal disease etiology is often difficult, compounded by inaccurate or delayed diagnostic methods. Breath-based biomarkers are being investigated as a novel target for clinical diagnostics. This review aims to summarize recent advancements, identify gaps, and discuss future research directions for breath-based fungal diagnostics. Recent Findings: Studies conducted in vitro, in animal models, and in human breath show fungi produce a large and diverse volatile metabolome. Recent studies on Aspergillus, Candida, Rhizopus, Coccidioides, Trichoderma, Fusarium, and Alternaria demonstrate the feasibility of identifying infectious etiology using fungal volatile profiles. However, the majority of data on fungal volatiles come from in vitro analyses, which have limited translatability to in vivo infections; thus, future studies should focus on in vivo volatile profiles to develop breath tests for diagnosing infections and monitoring antifungal therapy. Summary: This review describes recent studies that examine volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as biomarkers to detect and differentiate pathogenic fungi, highlighting the feasibility of breath-based diagnostics for fungal disease.
KW - Biomarkers
KW - Breath
KW - Diagnostics
KW - Fungal disease
KW - Mycoses
KW - Volatile organic compounds
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85184258040&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85184258040&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s40588-024-00216-x
DO - 10.1007/s40588-024-00216-x
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85184258040
SN - 2196-5471
JO - Current Clinical Microbiology Reports
JF - Current Clinical Microbiology Reports
ER -