Activities of systemically administered echinocandins against in vivo mature Candida albicans biofilms developed in a rat subcutaneous model

Abstract

This study addresses the effects of micafungin, caspofungin, and anidulafungin against Candida albicans biofilms developed in a subcutaneous catheter rat model system. Doses of 5, 10, and 30 mg/kg (of body weight)/day (the last only for micafungin) were given intravenously for 5, 7, and 10 days. All three echinocandins caused a significant reduction of the Candida cell numbers on the implanted catheters and are thus promising for the treatment of biofilm-related infections.

Fig 1

Effects of systemic administration of micafungin (MFG), caspofungin (CSP), and anidulafungin (AND) on mature Candida albicans biofilms developed in a subcutaneous rat model. Animals were treated with two different doses of each drug, 5 mg/kg (A) and 10 mg/kg (B), for 5, 7, or 10 days. Open circles represent the log₁₀ numbers of CFU of C. albicans cells retrieved from each catheter. The horizontal lines indicate the median values for log₁₀ numbers of CFU obtained per catheter. Differences between the echinocandin-treated group and the control (C) group were considered statistically significant at P values of ≤0.05 (*) and ≤0.01 (**).