Fungi - Candida albicans - Non-Elaborate Posts - Post 8

 

 ERG11 mutations in Candida albicans are a major molecular cause of decreased fluconazole susceptibility in clinical isolates, and they often explain treatment failure when fluconazole is used as monotherapy. Laboratories routinely test Candida isolates for fluconazole minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) using standardized methods, and raised MICs prompt clinicians to consider alternative therapy.

 When an isolate displays high fluconazole MICs that correlate with ERG11 amino-acid substitutions (for example Y132F or K143R), clinicians frequently switch from fluconazole to an echinocandin for invasive disease because echinocandins act on a different target (β-1,3-D-glucan synthase).

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