Figure 1. Fungal exposome components and their interaction with the human host.
Fungi are ubiquitous in the outdoor and indoor environment, originating in both natural and anthropic sources, and are collectively designated as “external fungal exposome”. The internal fungal exposome consists of the fungal part of the microbiota, or mycobiota, comprising fungi found inside the human body or on its cutaneous and mucosal surfaces. The most prevalent fungal genera in the external and internal exposomes are shown. Fungi interact with other eukaryota, such asProtistae , and with bacterial, viral and archaeal components of the mycobiota. The mucosal and systemic immune responses mounted by the host in presence of fungi may contribute to preserve health or induce fungal-related diseases. Upper left box: ± denotes inconstantly demonstrated airborne fungal genera (as opposed to ubiquitous ones).
Figure 2. Normal versus pathological fungus – host interactions. Here, Aspergillus fumigatus is taken as an example of the balance between fungi and immune responses of the host, resulting in preserved health or development of various diseases.
Figure 3. Determination of Aspergillus fumigatus-specific IgE in serum. a, quantitative assays; b, semi-quantitative assays.a, The x axis denotes A. fumigatus -specific IgE levels (kUA/L); b, the x axis denotes the number of responses for each intensity class of A. fumigatus -specific IgE, shown as a discrete 0 to 6 scale on the y axis (0: no detectable A. fumigatus -specific IgE; 6: very high A. fumigatus -specific IgE result).
The lack of intermethod standardization results in high variability of the results obtained with the same sample during an external quality assessment program. The scattering of the results is seen with quantitative as well as semi-quantitative assays. CV, coefficient of variation, n, number of participating laboratories, SD, standard deviation.