Humans usually get dermatophytosis infection from animals and also from asymptomatic carriers, through direct contact or indirectly via fungus-bearing hair, scales and fomites. Despite the medical importance of Trichophyton verrucosum infections, there are limited in vitro data on the fungal susceptibility to antifungal drugs.

A new study published in Mycoses evaluated comprehensively, the in vitro activity of 11 antifungal drugs against a large collection of T. verrucosum isolates obtained in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia – from humans and animals using a microdilution assay. In vitro susceptibility testing of the selected antifungal drugs was performed according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) document M38.

The findings showed that the MICs of clotrimazole, ciclopirox, enilconazole, miconazole, naftifine and terbinafine against all T. verrucosum isolates were below 1 μg/mL, whereas those of fluconazole, griseofulvin, itraconazole, ketoconazole and voriconazole were above 1 μg/mL. Meanwhile, ciclopirox demonstrated superior activity against all strains relative to the other drugs.

The results suggested that drugs of different chemical origin have satisfactory antifungal activity and can be promising candidates for the treatment of T. verrucosum dermatophytosis. In addition, the drug sensitivity of isolates obtained from different hosts and geographical regions did not elicit significant disparity.

Source: Mycoses. 2020 Mar;63(3):294-301. doi: 10.1111/myc.13042.