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Autoantibodies neutralizing GM-CSF in HIV-negative Colombian patients infected with Cryptococcus gattii and C.
Carlos A Arango-Franco1, Julián Rojas1, Carolina Firacative2
1University of Antioquia (UdeA).
Background:
Cryptococcosis is a life-threatening disease caused by Cryptococcus neoformans or C. gattii. Autoantibodies (auto-Abs) neutralizing granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in otherwise healthy adults with cryptococcal meningitis have been described since 2013. We searched for neutralizing auto-Abs in sera from Colombian patients with non-HIV related cryptococcosis in a retrospective national cohort collected from 1997 to 2016.
Methods:
We reviewed clinical and laboratory records and assessed the presence of neutralizing auto-Abs in 30 HIV (-) adults presenting cryptococcosis (13 by C. gattii, and 17 by C. neoformans).
Results:
We detected auto-Abs neutralizing GM-CSF in the plasma of 9 out of 13 (69%) patients infected with C. gattii and 1 out of 17 (6%) patients with C. neoformans.
Conclusions:
We report ten Colombian patients with cryptococcosis due to auto-Abs neutralizing GM-CSF. Nine of the ten patients were infected with C. gattii, and only one with C. neoformans.
