10.2217/14750708.4.2.125 © 2 Invasive fungal infections continue to be associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality, primarily in the immunocompromised hosts. Candida and Aspergillus are the most common causes of invasive fungal disease; however, other fungi can also cause disease in humans. Current therapeutic options for the management of invasive fungal infections include the polyen...

A paradoxical increase in circulating Aspergillus antigen was observed during treatment with caspofungin in a patient with proven invasive aspergillosis. With the exception of treatment with the echinocandin, no other factors were found that might explain this clinical observation, which was supported by experiments done in vitro.

The uptake of the echinocandin drug caspofungin acetate in Candida albicans was evaluated at drug levels at or near the MIC for the organism. Maximal uptake was achieved in 10 min and was energy independent. A saturable transport system, consistent with a facilitated-diffusion carrier, was observed with the unlabeled drug competing with the labeled drug for uptake and efflux. More than 90% of t...

A new echinocandin type antifungal antibiotic, deoxymulundocandin, C48H77N7O15, was isolated from the culture filtrate and mycelia of a fungal culture, Aspergillus sydowii (Bainier and Sartory) Thom and Church var. nov. mulundensis Roy (Culture No. Y-30462). The structure was established by comparative GC-MS analyses of the derivatized acid hydrolysates of deoxymulundocandin and mulundocandin a...

Echinocandin drugs are widely used for the treatment of candidemia. Resistance is considered rare, and only a few cases of breakthrough candidiasis in patients receiving echinocandin have been reported worldwide. We report here for the first time a Candida kefyr isolate that acquired echinocandin resistance very rapidly after the initiation of caspofungin treatment for candidemia. We characteri...

The diagnosis of invasive fungal infections from radiographic imaging is non-specific and problematic. As a first step toward increasing specificity, we describe the development of a broad-spectrum fungal-specific targeting molecule, which when modified with a fluorescent label fully retains its targeting properties, and provides a basis for future imaging applications.

Antifungal efficacies of the echinocandin drugs caspofungin, micafungin, and anidulafungin were reduced significantly in the presence of 50% human serum, which yielded nearly equivalent MICs or minimum effective concentrations against diverse Candida spp. and Aspergillus spp. Consistent with a direct drug interaction, serum decreased the sensitivity of glucan synthase to echinocandin drugs.