The Antifungal Drug Isavuconazole Is both Amebicidal and Cysticidal against Acanthamoeba castellanii.

ABSTRACT: Current treatments for Acanthamoeba keratitis rely on a combination of chlorhexidine gluconate, propamidine isethionate, and polyhexamethylene biguanide. These disinfectants are nonspecific and inherently toxic, which limits their effectiveness. Furthermore, in 10% of cases, recurrent infection ensues due to the difficulty in killing both trophozoites and double-walled cysts. Therefore, development of efficient, safe, and target-specific drugs which are capable of preventing recurrent Acanthamoeba infection is a critical unmet need for averting blindness. Since both trophozoites and cysts contain specific sets of membrane sterols, we hypothesized that antifungal drugs targeting sterol 14-demethylase (CYP51), known as conazoles, would have deleterious effects on A. castella

SUBMITTER: Shing B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7179639 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature