Nice summary of development of liposomal antifungals

[Guest guest]

I just skimmed this, but noticed there were some impressive findings

of both reduced toxicity and increased efficacy for lipsomal

formulations of Amphotericin B and Nystatin.

From a quick skim, it sounds like there are multiple liposomal Amph

B products available for clinical use - I didn't catch any reference

to any other liposomal products being available at this point, but

the information in the full paper did look quite interesting and

extensive.

http://www.ualberta.ca/~csps/JPPS6(1)/K.Wasan/antibiotics.htm

Abstract

PURPOSE. The purpose of this review article is to review the

development of a number of liposomal polyene antibiotics.

BACKGROUND: In the past thirty years, the increase in life-

threatening pre-systemic and systemic fungal infections within

cancer, diabetic and AIDS patients have reached alarming

proportions. A number of antifungal agents have been developed to

combat this problem. In particular, polyene antibiotics such as

Amphotericin B (AmB) and Nystatin (Nys) have remained the most

effective and widely used agents in the treatment of these

infections. However, their administration is limited by dose-

dependent toxicities. One such dose-limiting toxicity is renal

toxicity. Polyene antibiotic-induced renal toxicity is believed to

be mediated by the drug anchoring to cholesterol within the

mammalian cell membrane, resulting in pore formation, abnormal

electrolyte flux, decrease in adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and

eventually a loss of cell viability. CONCLUSION: In the 1980s and

90s a number of promising lipid-based AmB and Nys formulations were

developed to overcome these toxicities. This article will review the

development of these liposomal polyene antibiotics.