First oral fungicide on its way?

[Guest guest]

An intriguing story came to our attention this month in

TheScientist.com. Amphotericin B is one of the oldest drugs available

to clinicians for the treatment of Aspergillus infections. First

identified in 1955 it is one of the few fungicides available i.e.

those that are capable of killing the infecting fungus rather than

just stopping it growing.

Unfortunately amphotericin is very poorly soluble in water so must be

dissolved using relatively toxic substances, and cannot be taken by

mouth as it will not dissolve in the stomach and absorb into the

bloodstream of a patient very efficiently.

As a result amphotericin and current derivatives (see treatment

section) are available as drugs to be given intravenously and partly

as a result of that and partly because of the toxicity of the drug it

must be administered in hospital under constant surveillance. This

can be unpleasant for the patient, limits the dose that can be given

to any particular patient and is an expensive process involving a lot

of time from medical staff.

Kishor Wasan, a pharmacologist at the University of British Columbia,

has rather luckily (as presented in the aformentioned story)

developed a new variant of amphotericin that can be given in orally

in animal experiments and successfully eliminate Aspergillus

fumigatus infection. Currently in 'preclinical trials' this new drug

(in competition with another oral amphotericin drug currently in

clinical trials) has the potential to offer clinicians a new weapon

with which to treat aspergillosis.