Abstract
Dermatophytosis is a fungal infection of skin, nails and hair. Treatments can be long and infections are often recurrent, and novel treatments are desirable. Here we tested the use of polymeric films that can be sprayed on the skin for the prevention and treatment of dermatophytosis. The two polymers selected were ABIL T Quat 60 and Eudragit E100, which were tested ex vivo using a porcine skin model, and in vitro using microbiological and microscopy techniques. Acceptability of the polymeric films was tested on the skin of healthy volunteers. The results showed that ABIL and Eudragit films prevented and treated fungal skin infections. Whilst polymer films may provide a physical barrier that prevents fungal colonization, it was shown that both polymers are active antifungals ex vivo and in vitro and have intrinsic antifungal activity. For ABIL, we also established that this polymer binds essential nutrients such as metal ions and sugars, thereby restricting the growth of fungi. When applied to healthy subjects’ skin, the polymeric films neither modified the skin color nor increased trans-epidermal water loss, suggesting a low potential for skin irritation, and the approach was generally found to be acceptable for use by the volunteers. In conclusion, we developed a novel strategy for the potential prevention and treatment of dermatophytosis.
Highlights
Dermatophytes are fungi that mainly affect keratinised tissues such as skin, nails and hair
Using our previously developed fungal skin infection model that employs ex vivo porcine skin [21], we analysed the ability of ABIL and Eudragit to prevent fungal infection on naive skin and to treat skin infected with T. rubrum or T. interdigitale
Both the prevention and treatment potential were tested; in the case of prevention, the polymer was added before inoculation of the skin, whereas for treatment the polymer was added on skin that had been infected for 3 days
Summary
Dermatophytes are fungi that mainly affect keratinised tissues such as skin, nails and hair. The infections caused by these fungi, referred to as dermatophytosis, are diseases with a high prevalence of about 20–25% of the world’s population [1]. Symptoms of the disease are usually fairly mild, but it does affect the quality of life of patients. Complications can occur in some patients, such as in diabetics or those who are immunocompromised [4,5,6]. Treatment for these infections can be lengthy, and after treatment there is a high recurrence, with 25–40% of patients either relapsing or being re-infected [7]. There is an increased incidence of failure of antifungal treatments [8,9,10], and novel prevention and treatment strategies are highly desirable
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