Our findings represent the first documented case of
C. gattii infection believed to have been acquired in New Mexico. The source of
C. gattii infection in this patient remains unknown. The patient had no travel history to a known endemic region, and while
C. gattii infection in domestic animals has been documented, these have been reported in animals residing in areas endemic to
C. gattii [8],
[24]. New Mexico is an arid region covered mostly by mountains, plains, and desert, with little annual rainfall and relatively low humidity. Since 2002, there has been an increase in precipitation around the Albuquerque area, which was highest between 2004 and 2008 compared to the 30-year normal averages. In addition, the annual temperature has also been above average, with a median temperature of 58 degrees Fahrenheit
[25]. New Mexico has regions similar to those in Mexico known to harbor
C. gattii [26]–
[29], whereas the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, which run through Albuquerque, may represent a more temperate climate niche. Environmental sampling in the Pacific Northwest demonstrated that
C. gattii has established ecological niches in trees other than
Eucalyptus, including species of fir, maple, alder, cedar, spruce, pine and oak trees
[10],
[24]. In another environmental surveillance study, certain species of cacti in Puerto Rico were also found to harbor
C. gattii [4],
[30]. Both of these sources could potentially serve as an ecological niche for
C. gattii in New Mexico. Further environmental surveillance of the patient's residential area was not conducted (as resources to pursue this are not available).
In general, cryptococcal disease appears to be rare in New Mexico. Between 2003 and 2007, we estimate there were at least one to two confirmed cases of cryptococcal disease in the Albuquerque area, which is home to the four largest hospitals in New Mexico. Starting in 2008, the number of confirmed cases increased with three cases in 2008, eight cases in 2009 and at least five cases to date in 2010. The autopsy report of this patient led to the diagnosis of disseminated
C. gattii infection. However, due to the initial clinical impression of lung malignancy, the patient's immunocompetent status and lack of a travel history did not heighten clinical awareness of a cryptococcal infection in time to initiate antifungal therapy. Because the clinical presentation was most suggestive of a lung mass or malignancy, and the actual diagnosis is infrequently seen in this area, further testing for invasive fungal infection was not performed. The patient had widely disseminated infection with extensive inflammation, and likely succumbed to overwhelming systemic infection and sepsis, rather than elevated intracranial pressure with brainstem herniation, based on post-mortem findings. To date,
C. gattii infections in the United States have been reported in Washington, Oregon, California, and North Carolina, in which all patients had some geographical exposure to endemic regions.
[7],
[8],
[31],
[32] The case reported here is similar to another case report of a 44-year-old immunocompetent man in Japan with
C. gattii CNS disease who had no history of recent overseas travel
[33]. Although this strain was VGIIa, similarities to this case include the endemic nature of the infection, and clinically, the mass lesion was also initially suspected to be a tumor. Cases such as these, in which immunocompetent patients who lack geographical risk factors living in non-endemic areas are acquiring
C. gattii infections, suggest that there might be a broader distribution of the pathogen than is currently recognized.
The non-VGII genotype of this
C. gattii isolate indicates it does not represent the migration of the PNW outbreak strains southward to New Mexico. Because of the lack of a clonal relationship to isolates from Mexico, it also does not likely represent the recent migration of
C. gattii isolates northward from Mexico. Rather, this isolate likely represents the emergence of a clonal genotype that, based on geography of the common isolates has probably persisted in the U.S. for quite some time. A recent literature review
[24] reported that VGIII isolates of
C. gattii are most common in South America but they are also found in North America, Central America, Australasia and Southeast Asia. It was also recently reported that the majority of
C. gattii isolates from HIV+ patients in California are VGIII
[31]. Isolates of the genotype VGIII have not been found so far in environmental samples from British Columbia
[10] nor from the U.S. PNW (S. Lockhart, unpublished results) but VGIII environmental isolates have been infrequently found in the U.S. in association with eucalyptus trees
[34]. Subtype VGIII isolates had not been reported from the PNW emergence until a single isolate was reported from Washington in 2009
[18],
[32]. Subsequently, human and veterinary isolates were reported from Washington, Oregon, and California, dating back to as early as 1992
[35]. It will be important to monitor further for the emergence of this genotype in other parts of the southwestern U.S.
C. gattii causes granulomatous pulmonary and disseminated disease in mouse inhalation models of infection, irrespective of the mouse strain used. In terms of genotypic variation in virulence, VGIIa isolates from the U.S. and from the Vancouver outbreak are more virulent in mice than VGIIb isolates from either region
[36]–
[39]. Our results suggest that the VGIII isolate R4569 is less virulent than either of the VGII strains tested. The morbidity observed in mice given an experimental infection with the VGIII isolate R4569 is similar to the morbidity observed in mice experimentally infected with other VGIII clinical isolates. Of the
C. gattii cases reported to the CDC between 2004 and 2010, 50% were molecular type VGIIa, 10% were VGIIb, and only 3% were VGIII
[40]. While the relationship of mouse virulence to human disease is unclear, it has been demonstrated that
C. gattii infections are immunologically similar in mice and infected humans with respect to cytokine profiles
[37],
[41].
C. gattii replicates intracellularly within macrophages. It has been demonstrated that intracellular replication rate within murine macrophages
in vitro is correlated with
in vivo virulence in mice
[38],
[42],
[43]. VGIIa isolates replicate more quickly in macrophages
in vitro and are more virulent
in vivo than VGIIb isolates. Furthermore, intracellular replication rate in murine macrophages correlates very highly with the intracellular replication rate in human macrophages, suggesting there might be a correlation between genotype and human virulence and disease
[43]. Additional studies comparing the intracellular growth rate of
C. gattii R4569 and other isolates within murine and human macrophages will be needed to support this hypothesis. The major clinical point from these in vivo studies is that despite strain R4569 being less virulent in this mouse infection model is that it is still highly capable of causing severe morbidity and mortality, particularly in the absence of timely diagnosis and therapy.
Based on the few previous reports
[18],
[32],
[35],
[38] there may be a low level of
C. gattii infection in the U.S. due to VGIII isolates that may be unrecognized outside of HIV+ patients. However, the underlying level of infection due to
C. gattii is currently unknown because many of the cases of cryptococcosis in the U.S. are diagnosed using an antigen test and most cases outside of the Pacific Northwest are assumed to be caused by
C. neoformans. The heterogeneity of the VGIII isolates in this study, as compared to the almost exclusively clonal nature of the current VGII PNW emergence isolates, would be consistent with a long-term presence in the U.S. and a possibly unrecognized, long term, low level, endemicity. It is also interesting to note that among HIV+ patients in California in the 1990's almost all of the infections due to
C. gattii were caused by isolates of the VGIII genotype
[31],
[44], where globally VGIII isolates were more often found in the non- immunocompromised patient population
[45],
[46]. We therefore support speciation of
Cryptococcus clinical isolates due to the implications for public health and for understanding the epidemiological distribution of this fungal pathogen. In addition, there is epidemiological evidence that there are substantive differences in the clinical presentation of
C. gattii and the course of disease compared to
C. neoformans [13].
As infections due to C. gattii increase both in the United States and worldwide, epidemiologic surveillance will play an important role in identifying new ecological niches or reservoirs for this emerging fungal pathogen. Since not all clinical and reference laboratories are equipped to differentiate between C. gattii and C. neoformans, a heightened clinical awareness of the disease will be required to prompt further identification and genotyping to track the distribution of C. gattii.