The lack of antifungal compounds with reduced side effects highlights the importance of studying natural products for this purpose. Curcumin was a more potent antifungal than fluconazole against P. brasiliensis, the causal agent of the neglected disease paracoccidioidomycosis. Curcumin dramatically inhibited the adhesion of Candida species isolated from AIDS patients to BEC, demonstrating that curcumin is a promising lead compound that warrants further investigation into its therapeutical use in immunocompromised patients.
Background
SARS-CoV-2 predisposes patients to secondary infections; however, a better understanding of the impact of coinfections on the outcome of hospitalized COVID-19 patients is still necessary.
Aim
To analyse death risk due to coinfections in COVID-19 patients.
Methods
We evaluated the Odds of death of 212 severely ill COVID-19 patients, with detailed focus on the risks for each pathogen, site of infection, comorbidities and length of hospitalization.
Findings
The mortality rate was 50.47%. Fungal and/or bacterial isolation occurred in 89 patients, of which 83.14% died. Coinfected patients stayed hospitalized longer and had an increased Odds of dying (OR = 13.45, R
2
=0.31). The risk of death was increased by bacterial (OR=11.28) and fungal (OR=5.97) coinfections, with increased levels of creatinine, leukocytes, urea and C-reactive protein. Coinfections increased the risk of death if patients suffer from cardiovascular disease (OR= 11.53), diabetes (OR=6.00) or obesity (OR=5.60) in comparison with patients with these comorbidities but without pathogen isolation. The increased risk of death was detected for negative-coagulase
Staphylococcus
(OR=25.39),
Candida
non-
albicans
(OR=11.12),
S. aureus
(OR=10.72),
Acinetobacter
spp. (OR=6.88),
Pseudomonas
spp. (OR=4.77) and
C. albicans
(OR=3.97). The high-risk sites of infection were blood, tracheal aspirate and urine. Patients with coinfection undergoing invasive mechanical ventilation were 3.8 times more likely to die than those without positive cultures.
Conclusions
Severe COVID-19 patients with secondary coinfections required longer hospitalization and had higher risk of death. The early diagnosis of coinfections is essential to identify high-risk patients and to determine the right interventions to reduce mortality.
Aiming at providing new formulations capable of improving the biopharmaceutical properties of fluconazole, we studied the formation of host–guest complexes of this antifungal agent with water-soluble sodium p-sulfonatocalix[n]arenes.
Aldimines are aldehyde-derived compounds that contain a C=N group. Besides its broad industrial applications, this class of non-naturally occurring compounds are found to possess antibacterial, antifungal, antimalarial, antiproliferative, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and antipyretic properties. Based on this, six aryl aldimines were synthesized from the condensation of aromatic amines with benzaldehydes. The antifungal activities of synthesized compounds were evaluated against nineteen fungal strains that included Candida and Aspergillus species, Cryptococcus neoformans. The aryl aldimines 2-(benzylideneamino)phenol (3) and 4-(benzylideneamino)phenol (8) were the most active compounds against the fungi studied. Compounds 3 and 8 efficiently inhibited the metabolism of C. neoformans mature biofilm.
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