Cerise de Castro Campos

Phenotypic aspects of oral strains of Candida albicans in children with down's syndrome

The aim of this article is to characterize the biological aspects of oral strains of C. albicans in children with Downs syndrome. These yeasts were analyzed as to their macromorphological and enzymatic aspects and were tested as to their in vitro susceptibility to antifungal drugs using broth microdilution to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). The morphotyping revealed that all oral C. albicans isolates from children with Downs syndrome promoted the formation of fringes regardless of size, while the control group presented smaller fringes. All oral C. albicans strains produced proteinase, but those with phospholipolytic activity showed greater enzyme capacity in the test group. In vitro susceptibility showed that all oral C. albicans isolates were sensitive to the drugs used.

Candida albicans isoladas da cavidade bucal de crianças com síndrome de Down: ocorrência e inibição do crescimento por Streptomyces sp

Comparison of the presence of Candida yeasts in the buccal cavity of children without and with Downs syndrome showed a statistically significant difference in the case of children that were affected by this chromosomopathy, rendering them more predisposed to buccal candidiasis, probably due to anatomicophysiologic alterations of the mouth resulting from trisomy of chromosome 21. Constant recurrence of buccal candidiasis in children with this chromosomal alteration lead to the search for a possible therapeutic alternative. Seeking to determine the antifungal activity of Streptomyces sp isolated from various Brazilian soils, 5 strains have been tested for Candida albicans isolated from the buccal cavity of children with Downs syndrome. It was observed that the isolate presented a diversity in the size of the halos (9-31 mm in diameter) of growth inhibition of the yeasts, suggesting a possible use as a therapeutic antifungal.