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Pre-Clinical Evaluation of AntifungalsIn vitro pre-clinical evaluation In vivo pre-clinical evaluation (Animal Models) The discovery of a new drug is followed by its screening for its antifungal activity. Even with successful drugs, the possibility of resistance development is a important question. This question can be answered by us using our antifungal susceptibility testing methods. These methods are now the standard in determining the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and Minimum Cidal Concentration (MCC) for antifungals. Evaluation of drug efficacy and resistance in vivo is the next logical step, which we perform by testing the antifungal in animal models. We have established infra-structure supported by competent staff to conduct both in vitro as well as in vivo evaluation of new antifungals before their introduction into the clinical setup. We can help you if you are a pharmaceutical/biotech company (a) with new antifungals, (b) developing successful antifungals, and/or (c) synthesizing novel compounds with possible antifungal activity. If you are a pharmaceutical/biotech company developing new antifungals, we can chip in with our expertise in pre-clinical evaluation of antifungals for their efficacy against a wide range of fungi including Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, dermatophytes, etc. We have an extensive collection of fungi isolated from patients. We routinely check the spectrum of antifungal efficacy against these fungal strains. If you are a pharmaceutical company with successful antifungals in the market, you might be interested in knowing the patterns of resistance, toxicity, specificity of your compound. We will be more than willing to help you out in these areas too, as we have a wide variety of facilities available at our disposal to conduct these tests. Studies on pharmacokinetics of antifungal drugs are done routinely by us - these studies compliment the cytotoxicity studies. In vitro pre-clinical evaluationSlide show of antifungal susceptibility testing methods. We provide the following studies for in vitro pre-clinical evaluation of antifungals:
We have developed standard methods for antifungal susceptibility testing of dermatophytes. To date, both of these areas have received little or no attention even though infections with these agents are increasing and may cause devastating systemic infections in the immunocompromised host, especially in those whose neutrophil and macrophage functions is deficient. Of particular relevance in the clinical laboratory area is the microdilution method we developed for determining the susceptibility of Cryptococcus neoformans. We have shown that this method is reproducible, easy to perform and has both intra- and inter-laboratory agreement. Critically, we demonstrated that cryptococcal susceptibility to fluconazole is an important predictor of treatment success for patients with acute AIDS-associated cryptococcal meningitis. This method was adopted as part of the NCCLS Reference Method for Antifungal Susceptibility Testing. Developing a susceptibility method for dermatophytes is currently being performed at CMM. Click here for a slide show of antifungal susceptibility testing methods. TOP
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