Associação entre antifúngicos e carvacrol contra Rhodotorula spp.

Abstract

The significant increase of microorganisms resistant to antifungal agents has become a problem of public health, causing high morbidity and mortality of patients. An alternative to overcome antimicrobial resistance may be the use of natural products. The search for new substances with antifungal activity has become increasingly necessary, however, another well-studied strategy is the association between antimicrobial agents, the combination of which seeks to promote greater efficiency in the treatment, allowing the use of less of each drug doses, reducing the risk of toxicity. In the last two decades the Rhodotorula genus has been recognized as an emerging pathogen in humans. The objective of this study was to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of carvacrol and antifungals (amphotericin B, ketoconazole and itraconazole) against Rhodotorula spp.. For sensitive strains to test drugs, it was also evaluated the effectiveness of antifungal agents when associated with carvacrol against Rhodotorula spp.. The determination of MICs carvacrol and antifungals were performed by the broth microdilution method. For the association study we used the methodology Checkerboard. The MIC of the range between carvacrol 8μg/mL and 128μg/mL, whereas the MIC of amphotericin B, ketoconazole and itraconazole were between 2μg/mL and 64μg/mL. In the checkerboard assay, the combination of carvacrol with ketoconazole provide synergistic results for a strain of Rhodotorula spp.. Results additives were demonstrated in association with carvacrol itraconazole and ketoconazole, amphotericin B for all results were indifferent. It is important to note that there were no antagonistic results in this work. Combinations of substances originating from plants as constituents of essential oils, may be antifungal promising in fighting infectious agents in humans such as Rhodotorula spp..