EFFECT OF A NEW SUPRAMOLECULAR HYDROGEL AGAINST CANDIDA ALBICANS BIOFILM

In recent decades, the incidence of fungal infections has considerable increased, particularly in immune compromised patients. Generally, opportunistic pathogens as Candida species are the main cause of invasive fungal infections, and are often associated with high morbidity and mortality. Candida albicans is a major fungal pathogen of humans, which present several virulence factors, especially the ability to form biofilm. The azoles are the mainly antifungal drugs used for the treatment of C. albicans infections. However, due to the presence of extracellular matrix, the C. albicans biofilm has significantly antifungal resistance, decreasing the efficacy of these conventional therapies. For these reasons, effective alternatives are required and increase the permeabilization of biofilm in order to antimicrobials reach deeper of this biofilm. So, in this study supramolecular polymer hydrogel was used as an alternative to increase the effectiveness of azoles. As results, the incubation (24 h) of mature C. albicans biofilms with the polymer (4%) associated with fluconazole (65 μg.mL -1 ) promoted ~ 70% inactivation of this fungus, while only the antifungal at same conditions inhibited ~ 40% of C. albicans. The control group (polymer 4%) it wasn’t capable to reduced fungi viability.