Interaction of Amiodarone with Azoles Against Aspergillus Planktonic Cells and Biofilms in vitro.

Abstract

Aspergillus spp. is the most common clinical pathogen of invasive fungal infection with high mortality. Existing treatments for Aspergillus spp. infection are still inefficient and accompanied by drug resistance, so it is still urgent to find new treatment approaches. The antiarrhythmic drug amiodarone (AMD) has demonstrated antifungal activity against a range of fungi. This study evaluated the efficacy of AMD in combination with triazoles for Aspergillus spp. infection. We tested the combined effect of AMD and three triazole drugs, namely, itraconazole (ITR), voriconazole (VRC), and posaconazole (POS), on the planktonic cells and biofilms of 20 strains of Aspergillus spp. via a checkerboard microdilution assay derived from 96-well plate-based method. Our results reveal that the combination of AMD with ITR or POS against Aspergillus biofilms has synergistic fungicidal effects. By contrast, the combination of AMD with VRC exhibits no antagonistic and synergistic effects. In this way, the use of AMD in combination with ITR or POS could be an effective adjunctive treatment for Aspergillus spp. infection.