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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, January 2006, p. 262-268, Vol. 50, No. 1
0066-4804/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AAC.50.1.262-268.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Topical Voriconazole as a Novel Treatment for Fungal Keratitis

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas,¹ Singapore Eye Research Institute, The National University of Singapore, Republic of Singapore;,² Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas³

Received 8 June 2005/ Returned for modification 21 July 2005/ Accepted 10 October 2005

Paecilomyces lilacinus is a fungal pathogen which is generally resistant to amphotericin B and certain other antifungals and is an uncommon cause of devastating fungal keratitis. In the present studies, we evaluated topical voriconazole as therapy for P. lilacinus keratitis in rabbits. Thirty eyes of 15 rabbits were studied. In five animals, the uninfected left eye was treated twice daily with voriconazole (drug control, uninfected eye). In these same animals, the right eye was infected with P. lilacinus but not treated with voriconazole (infection control eye). By day 5, the infection controls had lesions of >2.4 mm in diameter, with conjunctivitis and severe hypopyon, and were sacrificed. In the other 10 rabbits (voriconazole treatment), the right eyes were infected with P. lilacinus and treated with voriconazole beginning on day 3 after infection. Voriconazole therapy caused lesions to decrease during 8 days of therapy, after which rabbits were sacrificed (11 days postinfection). Hyphal masses were present in the control infected eyes and absent in treated infected eyes. Voriconazole was detected in all tissues of treated eyes. Topical voriconazole is effective treatment for P. lilacinus experimental keratitis, and it penetrates more deeply than the corneal tissue.

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