Innovation Pharmaceuticals details in vivo antifungal data showing brilacidin’s potential for treating fungal keratitis

Previous research conducted primarily by scientists at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, showed brilacidin can potentiate several marketed antifungals, including caspofungin, voriconazole and posaconazole.

Innovation Pharmaceuticals continues its ongoing research on the broad-spectrum antifungal activity of brilacidin, the company’s defensin mimetic drug candidate exhibiting antimicrobial and immunomodulatory properties.

Previous research conducted primarily by scientists at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, showed brilacidin can potentiate several marketed antifungals, including caspofungin, voriconazole and posaconazole.

Moreover, brilacidin exhibited potent stand-alone efficacy (MIC=2.5µM) against C. neoformans – a deadly fungus that causes an estimated 220,000 cases of cryptococcal meningitis worldwide each year and for which few effective treatments exist.

New in vivo data in an A. fumigatus murine fungal keratitis model showed brilacidin reduced fungal burden and disease severity, while also improving corneal thickness compared to control. brilacidin-treated corneas harbored almost no viable fungus, suggesting the compound suppressed fungal proliferation within the cornea. Worldwide, on an annual basis, fungal keratitis affects up to 1.5 million people, of whom 75 percent may lose an eye and/or their sight.

These new brilacidin findings in fungal keratitis complement an earlier in vitro and in vivo evaluation of brilacidin as an ocular anti-infective in bacterial keratitis. A broad-spectrum drug that could target both fungal and bacterial keratitis would be uniquely positioned as to its treatment profile and commercial potential.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently published its Fungal Priority Pathogens List to spur research, development and policy interventions to strengthen the global response to fungal infections and antifungal resistance. Based on new in vitro testing, brilacidin is exhibiting promising antifungal activity against many of these priority pathogens, including C. neoformans, A. fumigatus, C. albicans, Mucorales, Fusarium, Scedosporium spp., Lomentospora proflicans and C. krusei.

Planned next steps in brilacidin antifungal research include extending in vitro and in vivo testing into additional clinical isolates and animal models, and publishing scientific findings. In collaboration with the NIH/NIAID’s mycology division, brilacidin also is to be screened in multiple fungal species to further characterize its broad-spectrum antifungal activity. Future updates are planned.