Functional Defect of Neutrophils Causing Dermatophytosis: Case Report

Background: NADPH-oxidase and myeloperoxidase (MPO) play an important role on defense against pathogenic microorganisms. Defects on these mechanisms have been described in association with recurrent infections due to such as Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans. We describe a patient with partial disturbance of intracellular microorganism destruction clinically manifested by recurrent fungal infection. Case report and results: A 58-year-old male rural farmer has suffered with superficial mycosis affecting hands, nails and right ankle persisting for 20 years. He was treated with several antifungal drugs with no improvement. Mycological scraping isolated Trichophyton rubrum. Immunological evaluation showed impaired T cell proliferation to Candidin and impaired neutrophil burst oxidative after specific stimulation with Candida albicans. The patient’s DNA was extracted from peripheral blood leukocytes for whole exome sequencing (WES) analysis. Two heterozygous variants of undetermined significance were screened accordingly: (1) MPO A332V (c.995G>A; rs28730837); and (2) NCF1 G83R (c.247G>A; rs139225348). Conclusions: Functional leukocyte evaluation with heterozygous variants in MPO and NCF1 suggest that these defects were associated with the susceptibility to dermatophytosis in our patient. We have developed a fast, effective and safe trial for screening individuals with yeast infections.