Background: Candida glabrata is one of the most widespread Candida spp. associated to systemic
candidiasis. This species is particularly critical in hospitalized, catheterized and immunosuppressed
patients, due to a high drug resistance, specially to the azoles, but also to the ability to rapidly
develop echinocandin resistance.
Objectives: The goal of this work was to simulate a systemic infection exclusively derived from C.
glabrata biofilm cells and to evaluate the effectiveness of two echinocandins caspofungin (Csf) and
micafungin (Mcf) - in its treatment. The host-pathogen response was also studied, by analyzing the
inflammatory cell recruitment.
Methods: CD1 mice were infected exclusively with 48 h-biofilm cells of C. glabrata and then treated
with Csf or Mcf. After 72h, the efficacy of each drug was evaluated assessing organ fungal burden
through CFU counting. Moreover, the immune cell recruitment into target organs was evaluated by
flow cytometry and histopathology analysis.
Results: Fungal burden was higher in the liver than in the kidneys. Nevertheless, none of the drugs
was effective in eradicating completely the infection. At the evaluated time point, flow cytometry
analysis, showed a predominant mononuclear response in the spleen, which was also evident in liver
and kidneys of the infected mice, as observed by the histopathology analysis. Together, these
observations confirmed C. glabrata as a low inflammatory species and indicated that two-dose
treatment with Csf and Mcf do not have a significant impact on liver and kidney fungal burden, or
recruited inflammatory infiltrate, when mice are i.v. infected with C. glabrata biofilm-grown cells.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
