Trichosporon asahii is an opportunistic pathogen, associated with a high mortality rate in immunocompromised patients. In this study, ten isolates, recovered from oral cavity and urine of patients in Intensive Care Units (ICU) over six months, were identified by classical and molecular methods, typed by RAPD and tested in vitro for susceptibility to fluconazole, itraconazole, 5-flucytosine and amphotericin B. A total agreement between the identification of Trichosporon sp by PCR based on sequences of the Internal Transcribed Spacer Regions (ITS) and on the sequences of small-subunit (SSU) ribosomal DNA (rDNA) was found. Randomly amplified of polymorphic DNA (RAPD), with primers P6 and M13, was used to determine the genomic profiles. The dendogram analysis indicated that almost all strains showed similarity >0.9 among them and all strains were multidrug-resistant. This study brings new results on the identification and genotyping of T. asahii isolated from Brazilian ICU patients and information about their antifungal drugs susceptibility.
Keywords: PCR; RAPD; Trichosporon; antifungal drugs; susceptibility.