Efficacy of Voriconazole in Treatment of Murine Pulmonary Blastomycosis

We evaluated the efficacy of voriconazole, a new broad-spectrum triazole antifungal compound, in the treatment of murine pulmonary blastomycosis. Since mice metabolize voriconazole rapidly, we took advantage of our previous observation that administration of grapefruit juice to mice resulted in suitable serum voriconazole concentrations so that treatment studies with mice could be done (A. M. Sugar and X.-P. Liu, Med. Mycol. 38:209-121, 2000). Our results show that voriconazole prolonged survival in a dose-dependent fashion and that the fungal burden in the lungs was decreased by voriconazole administered at 40 mg/kg of body weight/day. Voriconazole should be studied in humans with blastomycosis.