Makoto Sumiyoshi, Taiga Miyazaki, Juliann Nzembi Makau, Satoshi Mizuta, Yoshimasa Tanaka, Takeshi Ishikawa, Koichi Makimura, Tatsuro Hirayama, Takahiro Takazono, Tomomi Saijo, Hiroyuki Yamaguchi, Shintaro Shimamura, Kazuko Yamamoto, Yoshifumi Imamura, Noriho Sakamoto, Yasushi Obase, Koichi Izumikawa, Katsunori Yanagihara, Shigeru Kohno, Hiroshi Mukae
Echinocandins, including caspofungin, micafungin, and anidulafungin, are first-line antifungal agents for the treatment of invasive candidiasis. They exhibit fungicidal activity by inhibiting the synthesis of β-1,3-D-glucan, an essential component of the fungal cell wall. However, they are active only against proliferating fungal cells and unable to completely eradicate fungal cells even after a 24 h drug exposure in standard time-kill assays. Surprisingly, we found that caspofungin, when dissolved in low ionic solutions, had rapid and potent antimicrobial activities against multidrug-resistant (MDR) Candida and bacteria cells even in non-growth conditions...
October 20, 2020: Scientific Reports