Tacrolimus enhances the potency of posaconazole against Rhizopus oryzae in vitro and in an experimental model of mucormycosis.

Background: We hypothesized that tacrolimus, an inhibitor of the calcineurin pathway, would enhance the in vivo activity of posaconazole against Rhizopus oryzae, the Mucorales species most commonly associated with mucormycosis.

Methods: We examined patterns of growth inhibition and fungicidal activity of posaconazole and tacrolimus, alone and in combination, against R. oryzae in vitro, using multiple methods (ie, hyphal metabolic and fluorescent vital dye reduction assays and measurement of chitin concentrations), and in vivo, using 2 mucormycosis models: an invertebrate model (Drosophila) and a nonlethal murine model of cutaneous mucormycosis.

Palatal mucormycosis in patients with hematologic malignancy and stem cell transplantation.

We present two patients with acute myelogenous leukemia who developed palatal mucormycosis, as well as a review of 15 well described reported cases of the same condition in patients who had hematologic malignancy and had undergone hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Early diagnosis of palatal mucormycosis requires high suspicion of the disease along with a thorough oral examination. Mucormycosis is a devastating disease with a high mortality rate, thereby stressing the importance for early appropriate antifungal therapy in immunocompromised patients with palatal lesions while awaiting the results of histopathology and cultures.

Prior antimicrobial exposure and the risk for bloodstream infection with fluconazole-non-susceptible Candida strains.

Candida species are a common cause of bloodstream infection among hospitalized patients. Increasingly these infections are caused by strains resistant to commonly used antifungal agents. The aim of this study was to assess the association between exposure to specific antimicrobial agents and subsequent bloodstream infection with fluconazole-non-susceptible and fluconazole-susceptible Candida strains.