BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Clinical Infectious Diseases
First Report of Bloodstream Infection Caused by Apiotrichum veenhuisii in a Patient with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Provisionally accepted
- 1The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Meidical University, Nanning, China
- 2Department of Clinical Laboratory, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Guangxi, China
- 3Key Laboratory of Clinical Laboratory Medicine of Guangxi Medical University, Education Department of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning 530021, China
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Apiotrichum veenhuisii (A. veenhuisii), a type of yeast found widely in nature, is a rare pathogen that induces human infection globally. Here, we report a case of a female patient with recurrent B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) who developed severe febrile neutropenia following systemic chemotherapy. In the meantime, a certain species of fungus was repeatedly detected in her peripheral blood and bone marrow cultures. This strain was ultimately identified as A. veenhuisii through morphological examination and molecular genetic analysis. Fungemia was therefore diagnosed. After amphotericin B and voriconazole treatments, the patient's symptoms were resolved remarkably. No recurrent B-ALL was found in her bone marrow at 3 months of follow-up. This is the first evidence worldwide of bloodstream infection caused by A. veenhuisii in humans as far as we know. A precise aetiological diagnosis guides us on the correct path of antifungal treatment at a very early stage, making the patient recover with a favorable prognosis. Further functional annotation and phylogenetic analysis were performed after the whole genome was sequenced. This may help us better understand the biological characteristics and evolutionary relationships of this species.
Keywords: Apiotrichum veenhuisii, Bloodstream infection, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, morphology, antifungal therapy, whole genome sequencing
Received: 27 Aug 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Meng Li, gxmulimeng@foxmail.com
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