Pharmacological Evaluation of a Novel Oral Amphotericin B Formulation for the Treatment of Disseminated Candidiasis: Providing New Therapeutic Alternative to the Commercial Intravenous Formulation

Amphotericin B (AmB) is the drug of choice to treat systemic fungal infection. AmB is available as parenteral infusions given over a long period of time to hospitalized patients. Our goal is to develop a novel oral formulation to enhance AmB low absorption and decrease the nephrotoxicity associated with its intravenous administration. AmB will be formulated in lipid based formulation from which AmB is solubilized by the lipid digestion products in the presence of the bile acids in intestine. To assess the efficacy of the formulation, a fungal infection model will be developed. The model will be challenged using various treatment regimens to construct a dose-response correlation. With collaboration with iCo Therapeutics Inc., the company will benefit from the analytical and research facilities in UBC to get this product moving forward for further pre-clinical research before it can be tried on human volunteers.

Faculty Supervisor:

Kishor Wasan

Student:

Partner:

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate