BACKGROUND A major characteristic of Candida biofilm cells that differentiates them from free-floating cells is their high tolerance to antifungal drugs. This high resistance is attributed to particular biofilm properties, including the accumulation of extrapolymeric substances, morphogenetic switching, and metabolic flexibility. OBJECTIVES This study evaluated the roles of metabolic processe...

Background and Purpose: Candida albicans is the most common Candida species (spp.) isolated from fungal infections. Azole resistance in Candida species has been considerably increased in the last decades. Given the toxicity of the antimicrobial drugs, resistance to antifungal agents, and drug interactions, the identification of new antifungal agents seems essential. In this study, we assessed t...

Opportunistic fungal infections resistant to antifungal agents have been increasingly documented in recent years and their frequency will likely continue to increase. This phenomenon appears due largely to the extensive use of antifungal agents to treat fungal infections that typically occur in severely immunocompromised and/or critically ill patients. Candida species are leading fungi responsi...

The in vitro activity of three different azoles (fluconazole, FLC, voriconazole, VRC and ketoconazole, KTC) was determined and correlated with the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a “hot spot” region of the ERG11 gene in a collection of 52 arbitrarily selected C. albicans strains isolated from Sardinian subjects with oropharyngeal candidiasis. Among the strains evaluated, 23.1% were re...

Background Candida parapsilosis is one of the five common strains of yeasts involved in invasive candidiasis. The expression analysis of sterol biosynthesis pathway genes, which are associated with resistance, can assist the better understanding of antifungal resistance mechanisms. Method The antifungal susceptibility of 120 clinical C. parapsilosis isolates was examined. The changes in the g...

Background and Purpose: The frequency of opportunistic fungal infections in immunocompromised patients, especially by Candida species, has sharply increased in the last few decades. The objective of this study was to analyse the ergosterol content and gene expression profiling of clinical isolates of fluconazole resistant Candida albicans. Materials and Methods: Sixty clinical samples were ide...