Invasive fungal infections are associated with significant morbidity and mortality despite advances in medical care. Aggressive diagnostic approaches in “at risk” patients, coupled with prompt antifungal therapy, are essential for patient survival. Early intervention is strongly recommended, rather than waiting for microbiological or histopathological confirmation. The selection of antifungal a...

background and purpose: the incidence of fungal infection as well as candidemia has increased significantly, contributing to morbidity and mortality in the developed countries. the alarming increase in infections with multidrug resistant bacteria is due to overuse of a broad spectrum antimicrobials, which leads to over growth of candida spp.; thus, enhancing its opportunity to cause the disease...

Resistance to azole antifungal agents in Candida albicans can be mediated by multidrug efflux transporters. In a previous study, we identified at least two such transporters, Cdr1p and Benp, which belong to the class of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters and of major facilitators, respectively. To isolate additional factors potentially responsible for resistance to azole antifungal agents ...

Candida infections have created a great burden on the public healthcare sector. The situation is worsened by recent epidemiological changes. Furthermore, the current arsenal of antifungal agents is limited and associated with undesirable drawbacks. Therefore, new antifungal agents that surpass the existing ones are urgently needed. High-throughput screening of small molecule libraries enables r...

The structures of atpenins A4, A5 and B, new antifungal antibiotics produced by Penicillium sp., have been deduced to be I, II and III, respectively, on the basis of spectroscopic and 1H and 13C NMR spectral data. The molecular structure of atpenin A4 with absolute configurations was finally confirmed to be 2'S,4'S,5'S-5,6-dimethoxy-4-hydroxy-5'-chloro-2',4'- dimethyl-1'-oxoheptyl-2-hydroxypyri...

The goal in treatment of infections is to achieve a beneficial effect while minimizing toxicity. It is widely recognized that the principles of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics are critical to determining an adequate dose-response relationship. There has been an increased involvement of the CNS to infection from opportunistic and endemic fungi over the last several decades due to establish...

Background: Candida species are an important cause of opportunistic infection in the oral cavity of immunocompromised patients. Various antifungal agents have been used for the treatment of oral candida infection. Tea tree oil is a herbal product which is known to have broad antifungal properties. Objective: To compare the antifungal efficacy of 1% tea tree oil, 1% clotrimazole, and 0.2% chlorh...

Aspergillus infections are occurring with an increasing frequency in transplant recipients. Notable changes in the epidemiologic characteristics of this infection have occurred; these include a change in risk factors and later onset of infection. Management of invasive aspergillosis continues to be challenging, and the mortality rate, despite the use of newer antifungal agents, remains unaccept...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the activities of two newer triazoles and two echinocandins combined with human phagocytes against Candida parapsilosis biofilms. METHODS An in vitro model of C. parapsilosis biofilms was used. Biofilms were grown on silicone elastomer discs in 96-well plates at 37°C for 72 h. Biofilms or planktonic cells were incubated with voriconazole, posaconazole, caspofungin or...

The incidence of fungal infections has increased globally, and the introduction of the newer triazoles and echinocandin antifungals is a more-than-welcome and long overdue development. In this report, we review the clinical trials evaluating the therapeutic efficacy of these new antifungal agents and examine possible gaps in coverage. Voriconazole has become the primary treatment for most forms...