Off-Label Treatments As Potential Accelerators in the Search for the Ideal Antifungal Treatment Of Cryptococcosis

Abstract

Cryptococcosis is an opportunistic mycosis that mainly affects immunosuppressed patients. The treatment is a combination of three antifungal agents: amphotericin B, 5-flucytosine and fluconazole. However, these drugs have many disadvantages, such as high nephrotoxicity, marketing bans in some countries and fungal resistance. One of the solutions to find possible new drugs is pharmacological repositioning. This work presents repositioned drugs as an alternative for new antifungal therapies for cryptococcosis. All the studies here were performed in vitro or in animal models, except for sertraline, which reached phase 3 in humans. There is still no pharmacological repositioning approval for cryptococcosis in humans, though this review shows the potential of repurposing as a rapid approach to finding new agents to treat cryptococcosis.

Assessing the In Vitro Potential of Glatiramer Acetate (Copaxone®) as a Chemotherapeutic Candidate for the Treatment of Cryptococcus neoformans Infection

“…Although diseases caused by fungi are gaining more and more attention from the medical–scientific community, there is not enough investment in the development of new drugs that fight these infections. This concept, although in theory a recently discussed topic, has already been applied for some time in the search for new antifungals, such as studies with sertraline, statins, albendazole, ibuprofen, and others [ 22 ].…”