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Pros and Cons of Extrapolating Animal Data on Antifungal Pharmacodynamics to Humans

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Abstract

Both the incidence of invasive fungal infections and the number of antifungal agents available to clinicians have expanded significantly over the past two decades. Successes with pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic evaluations of other antimicrobial agents in animal models and their clinical correlations with patient outcomes have led to an increased number of studies evaluating both old and new antifungal agents. Recently, animal models have successfully defined target pharmacodynamic indices for many antifungal agents and fungal infections, but validation of these targets in human studies is frequently lacking. This article evaluates the potential pros and cons of extrapolating to humans the animal data on antifungal pharmacodynamics.

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Disclosure

Conflicts of Interest : S. Mueller: none; T. Kiser: grants from Pfizer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, 12850 E. Montview Blvd, Mail Stop C238, Aurora, CO, 80045, USA

    Tyree H. Kiser

  2. Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA

    Scott W. Mueller

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  1. Scott W. Mueller
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  2. Tyree H. Kiser
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Correspondence to Tyree H. Kiser.

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Mueller, S.W., Kiser, T.H. Pros and Cons of Extrapolating Animal Data on Antifungal Pharmacodynamics to Humans. Curr Fungal Infect Rep 5, 59–66 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12281-011-0051-0

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