Treatment of experimental candidosis with amphotericin B-Intralipid admixtures in immunocompromised mice

The main goal of this research was the evaluation of the efficacy of amphotericin B (AMB) in comparison with AMB-Intralipid (AMB-IL) admixtures in cyclophosphamide (CY)-compromised animals for the treatment of systemic candidosis induced by several pathogenic Candida spp. Four-week-old ICR female mice were inoculated ip with 200 mg/kg of CY. At day 4 post-CY treatment the animals were inoculated iv with Candida albicans, Candida glabrata or Candida tropicalis (different inocula for the different species). Forty-eight hours later various doses of conventional AMB (0.4-1 mg/kg for 5 days) or AMB-IL admixtures (0.4-2 mg/kg for 5 days) were administered iv and the survival rate and mean survival time (MST) were evaluated during an observation period of up to 42 days. These experiments showed that while all control animals died, the survival rate of the AMB-treated mice ranged between 13 and 65% and that of the AMB-IL-treated mice was in the range 30-100% depending on the infecting dose and Candida species. The follow-up of the course of infection showed that AMB-IL admixtures increased the survival time of the treated mice. The MST was significantly higher for the mice treated with AMB-IL than for those treated with conventional AMB and was especially marked in the groups treated with high doses of the drug. Hence, the data obtained in the present study show that in CY-compromised mice AMB-IL admixtures were very effective in the treatment of systemic candidosis caused by C. albicans and non-albicans species.