Papers of the Week

Mucormycosis is an angioinvasive disease caused by mold fungi of the genus Rhizopus, Mucor. India has reported surge in cases of COVID 19 associated Mucormycosis over the past few months due to the increasing frequency of risk factors like corticosteroid therapy, uncontrolled diabetes, neutropenia and obesity. Studies have shown that eukaryote cell membrane contains cholesterol and fungal cell wall contains ergosterol with lanosterol being precursor for both and ergosterol is essential for mitochondrial DNA maintenance in fungi, as cholesterol is in humans. The current study is based on the hypothesis that fungi can use human cholesterol as a raw material to maintain its cell function and accentuate its own multiplication and this can indirectly be shown by the association between deranged lipid parameters in an individual with severity of Mucormycosis. Thus present study aims to estimate the lipid parameters and correlate the serum lipid parameters with clinical profile, stage of the disease and duration of onset of mucormycosis in patients with COVID associated Mucormycosis.