Datum objave: 29.06.2011
Kategorija: Aktualno na Univerzi
Slovensko javnost bi radi obvestili o neverjetnem zanimanju, ki ga je dosegel članek z naslovom » Dishwashers - A man-made ecological niche accommodating human opportunistic fungal pathogens, v tisku v Fungal Biology, online 7 May 2011, ISSN 1878-6146, DOI: 10.1016/j.funbio.2011.04.007.
Danes (28. Junij 2011) je minil teden dni od kar je bila objavljena tale izjava za tisk:
My dishwasher is trying to kill me
New research finds harmful fungal pathogens living in dishwasher seals
Oxford, 21 June 2011 - A potentially pathogenic fungus has found a home living in extreme conditions in some of the most common household appliances, researchers have found. A new paper published in the British Mycological Society journal, Fungal Biology, published by Elsevier, shows that these sites make perfect habitats for extremotolerant fungi (which includes black yeasts). Some of these are potentially dangerous to human health.
Modern living comes with an increasing need for electrical household equipment such as dishwashers, washing machines and coffee machines. A characteristic of these appliances is a moist and hot environment. In the case of dishwashers, high temperatures between 60o to 80oC are intermittently produced and aggressive detergents and high concentrations of salt are used in each washing cycle.
The article focuses on the occurrence of potentially pathogenic fungal flora located in dishwashers, over a sample of private homes from 101 cities on 5 continents. 62% of the dishwashers contained fungi on the rubber band in door, 56% of which accommodated the polyextremotolerant black yeasts Exophiala dermatitidis and E. phaeomuriformis. Both Exophiala species showed remarkable tolerance towards heat, to high salt concentrations, to aggressive detergents, as well as to both acid and alkaline water. This is a combination of extreme properties not previously observed in fungi.
Exophiala species are rarely isolated from nature, but they are frequently encountered as agents of human disease, both in compromised and healthy people. They are also known to be involved in pulmonary colonization of patients with cystic fibrosis, and also occasionally cause fatal infections in healthy humans. The invasion of black yeasts into our homes represents a potential health risk.
The discovery of this widespread presence of extremophilic fungi in some of our common household appliances suggests that these organisms have embarked on an extraordinary evolutionary process that could pose a significant risk to human health in the future.
The article, “Dishwashers – A man-made ecological niche accommodating human opportunistic fungal pathogens” by P. Zalar, M. Novaka, G.S. de Hoog and N. Gunde-Cimerman appears in the journal, Fungal Biology (doi:10.1016/j.funbio.2011.04.007).
Do danes (28. Junij 2011) je članek dosegel – in s tem seveda tudi Univerza v Ljubljani – naslednje odmeve:
Na Google je na to temo že 2.950.000 zadetkov, o članku so poročali v več kot 80 svetovnih revijah (vse od Scientific American, Herald Tribune, New York times, ipd.), Avtorica prof.dr. Nina Gunde Cimerman je dala intervjuje ipd. za okoli dvajset TV postaj, radijskih programov in časopisov...
No, kot zadnjo novico pa nam je danes (28. Junij 2011) profesorica Gunde-Cimerman sporočila, da je izvedela, da ARRS projekta s tem naslovom ni odobril, ker se enemu od obeh recenzentov v drugem krogu (biotehnologija) projekt ni zdel dovolj »relevanten«. Relevanca je pa res hudo čudna reč, ali ne? Gospe in gospodje, ki upravljate z ARRS, ali boste kaj storili?