Monday, January 22, 2007

Review of Echinocandins

The echinocandins comprise a new class of antifungal agents which act by inhibiting fungal cell wall synthesis. They tend to be fungicidal against yeasts (although inactive against cryptococci), fungistatic against molds and inactive against dimorphic fungi.

A two part review was recently published in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, available in full text via Medscape. Part 1 addresses chemistry, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Part 2 deals with clinical usage and role of echinocandins in the relative to other antifungal agents.

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