JAC Advance Access originally published online on January 29, 2007
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 2007 59(3):441-450; doi:10.1093/jac/dkl521
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Biofilm formation by fluconazole-resistant Candida albicans strains is inhibited by fluconazole
1 Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University, 136 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA 02111, USA 2 Tufts-New England Medical Center, 750 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA
Received 24 August 2006; returned 22 October 2006; revised 3 November 2006; accepted 28 November 2006
* Corresponding author. Tel: +1-617-636-0404; Fax: +1-617-636-0211; E-mail: carol.kumamoto{at}tufts.edu
Objectives: The fungal pathogen Candida albicans forms biofilms on implanted medical devices, resulting in infections with high mortality. Fully developed biofilms, which are adherent communities of microorganisms, characteristically exhibit high resistance to antimicrobial drugs, making treatment of device-associated infection problematic. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the addition of the azole antifungal fluconazole on the initiation of biofilm formation by both drug-susceptible and drug-resistant C. albicans strains.
Results: Our data reported here show that biofilm formation by both fluconazole-susceptible and fluconazole-resistant C. albicans strains was inhibited when fluconazole was present. For the fluconazole-susceptible strains, inhibition of growth due to the presence of the antifungal drug probably prevented the acquisition of high-level fluconazole resistance. However, for fluconazole-resistant strains, the inhibition of biofilm development was unexpected.
Conclusions: Unexpectedly, fluconazole inhibited biofilm formation by a variety of laboratory isolated and clinically isolated fluconazole-resistant strains.
Keywords: C. albicans , drug resistance , MDR1