Therapeutic efficacy of posaconazole against isolates of Candida albicans with different susceptibilities to fluconazole in a vaginal model

Abstract

A battery of 34 vaginal isolates of Candida albicans was tested against posaconazole (POS) and fluconazole (FLU) to determine their in vitro susceptibilities and to obtain FLU-susceptible and FLU-resistant strains for the murine in vivo studies. FLU-resistant strains were chosen on the basis of their 48-h MICs. The 48-h geometric mean MICs for all isolates tested were 0.016 and 0.656 microg/ml for POS and FLU, respectively. The treatment regimens for the vaginal murine infection model were POS or FLU at 10 or 20 mg/kg of body weight/day and 20 mg/kg twice a day. All regimens with POS were effective in reducing fungal burden of both the fluconazole-susceptible and resistant isolates of C. albicans. All FLU regimens were effective against infection induced by the fluconazole-susceptible strain. While FLU at 10 mg/kg was ineffective against fungal burden of the resistant strain, treatment with FLU at 20 mg/kg once or twice a day was effective against this strain. Both POS and FLU at 20 mg/kg twice a day were able to clear C. albicans from vaginas of mice infected with the fluconazole-susceptible strain. POS displayed a more effective in vivo activity than FLU in the treatment of murine C. albicans vaginitis produced by isolates with different susceptibilities to FLU.