Published in:
01-12-2017 | Clinical Mycology Lab Issues (S Córdoba, Section Editor)
Time-Kill Curves Studies with Amphotericin B Against Cryptococcus neoformans/C. gattii Species Complex Clinical Isolates
Published in: Current Fungal Infection Reports | Issue 4/2017
Login to get accessAbstract
Purpose of Review
We reviewed data on amphotericin B (AmB) tolerance among Cryptococcus neoformans/C. gattii species complex clinical isolates and present our results of large recent study on this issue.
Recent Findings
The standard method to detect antifungal susceptibility is based on MIC (minimal inhibitory concentration) determination; however, there is no interpretative clinical breakpoints defined for antifungal agents against Cryptococcus species, and to date, there is no correlation of MIC and clinical response. The time-kill curves (TKC) methodology seems to provide some correlation with outcome and it could identify distinct profiles of AmB-fungicidal activity.
Summary
Our group analyzed 83 human isolates from cryptococcosis cases. The isolates were tested by TKC and showed up 8.3% of tolerance to AmB. Importantly, the AmB-MIC was low for all isolates, including tolerant ones. Our findings are similar to other authors, due the ability of TKC to identify distinct AmB-fungicidal activity and detecting low susceptible isolates.