Micafungin combined with fluconazole, an effective therapy for murine blastoschizomycosis

OBJECTIVES: To study the efficacy of micafungin combined with fluconazole in a murine model of disseminated blastoschizomycosis. METHODS: Mice were treated with fluconazole at 40 or 80 mg/kg/day given orally, with micafungin at 10 mg/kg/day given subcutaneously or with a combination of micafungin with fluconazole at the doses described above. Treatment began 1 day after infection and continued for 6 days post-infection. Tissue burden studies were performed 1 day after the treatment finished. The experiments were performed with three different strains. RESULTS: The two combinations tested significantly improved the survival of mice with respect to the control group and reduced the tissue burden significantly with respect to the control and their respective monotherapies in most organs tested. All animals that received the combination of micafungin with fluconazole at 80 mg/kg/day survived up to the end of the experiment. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of micafungin with fluconazole is promising for the treatment of disseminated blastoschizomycosis.