Diagnosis of mucormycosis using a simple duplex PCR assay: Analysis of 160 clinical samples from COVID-19 patients

Abstract

Early diagnosis of mucormycosis, a severe and potentially fatal complication in immunocompromised and COVID-19 patients, is crucial for initiating timely antifungal therapy and reducing infection mortality. In this study, the diagnostic performance of a duplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was evaluated to detect Mucorales-specific and Rhizopus oryzae-specific targets in 160 clinical samples collected from 112 COVID-19 patients suspected of invasive fungal rhinosinusitis (IFRS). During potassium hydroxide (KOH) direct microscopy, non-septate hyphae were observed in 73 out of 160 samples (45.63); however, using duplex PCR, 82 out of 160 specimens (51.25) tested positive. Among the positive PCR samples, 67 (81.71) exhibited a double band (both 175 and 450 base pairs bp) indicating the presence of R. oryzae, and 15 (18.29%) showed only a single band (175 bp), suggesting the presence of non-R. oryzae Mucorales. DNAs from 10 microscopically negative samples and 4 samples with septate hyphae in microscopy were successfully amplified in PCR. Considering Calcofluor white fluorescence microscopy as the gold standard for laboratory diagnosis of mucormycosis, the duplex PCR assay utilized in this study exhibited a sensitivity of 93.88%, a specificity of 100%, a negative predictive value of 91.18%, and a positive predictive value of 100% for detecting mucormycosis in IFRS specimens. The duplex PCR assay demonstrated higher sensitivity compared to direct examination with KOH (82 vs. 73) and culture (82 vs. 41), enabling rapid detection/identification of Mucorales even in samples with negative culture or in biopsies with only a few hyphal elements. Early diagnosis of mucormycosis, a severe complication in COVID-19 patients, is critical for reducing the mortality of the infection. In this study, a sensitive and rapid PCR assay to detect all Mucorales and delineate Rhizopus oryzae was developed and assessed to improve the diagnosis of mucormycosis.