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Background: The increasing incidence and high mortality rate of Candida glabrata infection in ICU patients is an important issue. Therefore, it is imperative to investigate the antifungal susceptibility profiles and epidemiological characteristics in local regions., Methods: Herein, antifungal susceptibility testing was conducted to determine the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of eight antifungal drugs. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) was used to study the strain genotype, geographical distribution, and susceptibility to antifungal agents among C. glabrata isolates. The mechanism of echinocandin resistance was explored by sequencing the FKS1 and FKS2 genes (encoding 1,3-β-D-glucan synthases) of echinocandin-resistant C. glabrata strains. Moreover, we further investigated the clinical manifestations and the various risk factors of patients infected with C. glabrata in the ICU., Results: We selected 234 C . glabrata isolates from 234 patients in the ICU randomly for the follow-up study. Cross-resistance was found among the ICU C. glabrata isolates. Analysis using MLST showed that the genetic diversity among the C. glabrata isolates was low. Furthermore, sequence type showed no correlation with the antifungal resistance profiles, but was associated with geographical distribution. We also revealed novel mutations in FKS1 (S629P) and FKS2 (W1497stop) that mediated high-level echinocandin resistance (MIC >8 µg/mL). More than 14 days' stay in ICU (P=0.007), Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE-II) score (P=0.024), prior antifungal exposure (P=0.039) and lung disease (P=0.036) were significantly associated with antifungal resistant/non-wild-type C. glabrata infection., Conclusion: Our study shed light on the antifungal susceptibility, molecular epidemiology, and clinical risk factors of C. glabrata in the ICU of a Chinese Tertiary Hospital. Importantly, we revealed the molecular mechanism of echinocandin resistance. These results highlight the significance of continued surveillance in ICUs and provide data support for the treatment of C. glabrata in clinics., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Huang, Lv, Song, Zhao, Liu, Wang and Xiang.)

Objective: To identify and analyze the genetic characteristics of nucleoprotein (N) and glycoprotein (G) genes of rabies virus (RABV) isolated from a donkey in Wuhan. N gene and G gene of the virus were compared with other representative street strains isolated around Hubei areas as well as the vaccine strains used in China and abroad., Methods: RABV in brain tissue of a donkey was detected by direct immunofluorescent method and then inoculated in suckling mice to observe the incidence of rabies. Brain samples of the donkey and infected suckling mice were detected by ELISA. The N gene and G gene fragment of the isolated RABV were amplified by RT-PCR and cloned into pMD18-T vector for sequencing and genetic analysis., Results: RABVs were detected in both donkey brain and suckling mice brain samples. The N gene and G gene nucleotide homology of RABV isolated from the donkey with other representative street strains found around Hubei areas as well as vaccine strains used in China and abroad were 85.7% - 99.1% and 82.2% - 99.7%, and the deduced amino acid identity were 95.6% - 99.8% and 87.8% - 99.4%, respectively., Conclusion: Novel RABV was successfully identified and isolated from a donkey and showed close relationship to the representative street strains found around Hubei areas as well as vaccine strains used in China through genetic analysis.