Evaluation of fungal-specific fluorescent labeled echinocandin probes as diagnostic adjuncts

Abstract

The diagnosis of invasive fungal infections from radiographic imaging is non-specific and problematic. As a first step toward increasing specificity, we describe the development of a broad-spectrum fungal-specific targeting molecule, which when modified with a fluorescent label fully retains its targeting properties, and provides a basis for future imaging applications.

Keywords:

• diagnostics
• invasive fungal infections
• fluorescence labeled anti-fungal
• caspofungin

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant to D.S.P. from NIH (AI069397), NIH grant to A.M. (GM30717).

Declaration of interest: D.S.P. has research support from Merck but not for this work. The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and the writing of the paper.

This paper was first published online on Early Online on 15 May 2012.