Evaluation of Antifungal Efficacy in an Optimized Animal Model of Trichophytonmentagrophytes-Dermatophytosis

Abstract

Dermatophytoses are known to cause considerable discomfort, cosmetic prob-lems and financial loss that have been recognized as a significant health concern worldwide. Since currently available antifungal agents have limitations in their effi-cacy, new agents are being developed. This study was undertaken to optimize an in vivo model of experimental dermatophytosis for evaluation of the efficacy of anti-fungal compounds. Guinea pigs were infected with different inocula of T. menta-grophytes to establish dermatophytosis. The optimal conditions for dermatophyto-sis in guinea pigs were found to be an inoculum size of 1 × 10⁷ fungal cells applied on abraded skin. After optimization, animals were treated with oral or topical for-mulations of terbinafine. The optimized guinea pig model was found to be highly reproducible, and useful in the primary screening and evaluation of the anti-der-matophytic efficacy of topical and oral formulations of antifungal agents.

Keywords:

• Antifungal agent
• dermatophytosis
• efficacy
• guinea pig
• model