These are inhaled and reach the alveoli. In the alveoli, macrophages ingest these microconidia. They survive inside the phagosome. As the fungus is thermally dimorphic, these microconidia are transformed into yeast. They grow and multiply inside the phagosome. The macrophages travel in lymphatic circulation and can spread the disease to different organs.Within the phagosome, the fungus has an absolute requirement for thiamine. Cell-mediated immunity for histoplasmosis develops within 2 weeks. If the patient has strong cellular immunity, macrophages, epithelial cells, and lymphocytes surround the organisms and contain them, and eventually calcify. In immunocompromised individuals, the organisms disseminate to different organs such as bone, spleen, liver, adrenal glands, and mucocutaneous membranes, resulting in progressive disseminated histoplasmosis. Chronic lung disease can manifest. Diagnosis
Clinically,  a wide spectrum of disease manifestations occurs, making diagnosis somewhat difficult. More severe forms include the chronic pulmonary form, often occurring in the presence of underlying pulmonary disease, and a disseminated form, which is characterized by the progressive spread of infection to extrapulmonary sites. Oral manifestations have been reported as the main complaint of the disseminated forms, leading the patient to seek treatment, whereas pulmonary symptoms in disseminated disease may be mild or even misinterpreted as flu. Histoplasmosis can be diagnosed by samples containing the fungus taken from sputum (via bronchoalveolar lavage), blood, or infected organs. It can also be diagnosed by detection of antigens in blood or urine samples by ELISA or polymerase chain reaction. Antigens can cross-react with antigens of African histoplasmosis (caused by Histoplasma duboisii), blastomycosis, coccidioidomycosis, paracoccidioidomycosis, and talaromycosis infection.
Due to this increased risk, it is recommended that patients are screened for varicella zoster virus and antibody-negative patients are vaccinated prior to receiving treatment. In an analysis of post-approval data, as of 2020, no new infection safety signals were observed in over 18,000 patients.Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy has been reported in patients with hairy cell leukemia treated with parenteral cladribine. However, in up to 10 years of follow-up of patients receiving cladribine tablets for multiple sclerosis, no cases of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy have been observed; baseline MRI must be performed prior to initiating treatment.In clinical trials, malignancies were observed more frequently in patients treated with cladribine tablets compared with patients who received placebo. Compared with a matched reference population from the Global Cancer Observatory  database, cladribine tablets had no increased risk of malignancy in long-term real-world evidence data. Research directions
Cladribine has been studied as part of a multidrug chemotherapy regimen for drug-resistant T-cell prolymphocytic leukaemia. References
External links
"Cladribine". Drug Information Portal. U.S. National Library of Medicine.