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Candida albicans bloodstream infection (BSI) is epidemiologically important because of its increasing frequency and serious outcome. Strain typing and delineation of the species are essential for understanding the phylogenetic relationship and clinical significance. Microsatellite CAI genotyping and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) were performed on 285 C. albicans bloodstream isolates from patients in Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou (CGMHL), Taiwan from 2003 to 2011. Data regarding demographics, comorbidities, risk factors, and clinical outcomes were recorded within adult patients with C. albicans BSI. Both CAI genotyping and MLST yielded comparable discriminatory power for C. albicans characterization. Besides, the distribution of CAI repetition showed a satisfactory phylogenetic association, which could be a good alternative method in the molecular phylogenetics of C. albicans and epidemiological studies. As for the clinical scenario, clade 17 isolates with CAI alleles either possessing 29 or more repetitions were related to higher 14-day and 30-day mortality, and shorter median survival days.

Herein, positively surface-charged silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) capped with trimethylchitosan nitrate (TMCN) were synthesized using an environmentally friendly method. Nano-sized TMCN-AgNPs (~80 nm) with high zeta potential (>30 mV) provide sufficient static repulsion to stabilize colloid AgNPs in aqueous solutions without aggregation for >3 months. In in vitro cell cycle assays, TMCN-AgNPs showed low cytotoxicity towards L929 cells. A microdilution inhibition assay demonstrated the antifungal potential of TMCN-AgNPs, with a minimum inhibitory concentration of 0.06 mM against Candida tropicalis ATCC 750, and 0.46 mM against both Candida albicans ATCC 76615 and Candida glabrata ATCC 15545. Moreover, the addition of TMCN-AgNPs at 0.23 mM significantly reduced biofilm formation in 96-well plates with C. albicans and C. tropicalis. Importantly, when zebrafish eggs were infected with Candida cells, 0.23 mM TMCN-AgNPs greatly diminished the amount of biofilm on eggs and rescued the survival of embryos by up to 70%.