A Nanoemulsion as an Effective Treatment Against Human Pathogenic Fungi

The emergence of immunocompromising diseases such as HIV/AIDS or other immunosuppressive medical conditions have opened an opportunity for fungal infections to afflict patients globally. An increase antifungal drug resistant fungi have posed a serious threat to patients. Combining these circumstances with a limited variety of antifungal drugs available to treat patients has left us in a situation where we need to develop new therapeutic approaches that are less prone to development of resistance by pathogenic fungi. In this study we present the utilization of the nanoemulsion NB-201 to control human pathogenic fungi. We found that the NB-201 exhibited in vitro activity against C. albicans, including both planktonic growth and biofilms. Furthermore, treatments with NB-201 significantly reduced the fungal burden at the infection site and presented enhanced healing process after subcutaneous infections by multidrug resistant C. albicans in a murine host system. NB-201 also exhibited in vitro growth inhibition activity against other fungal pathogens, including Cryptococcus spp, Aspergillus fumigatus, and Mucorales. Due to the nature of the activity of this nanoemulsion, there is a minimized chance of drug resistance to develop, thus presents a novel treatment to control fungal wound or skin infections.