ArticlePloS one2010
Echinocandin treatment of pneumocystis pneumonia in rodent models depletes cysts leaving trophic burdens that cannot transmit the infection.
Article in PloS one, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06691321 (Efficacy of Caspofungin for Pneumocystis Jirovecii Pneumonia in People Living With HIV/AIDS.), which is not on this map. Cited by 90 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Efficacy of Caspofungin for Pneumocystis Jirovecii Pneumonia in People Living With HIV/AIDS.
Who cites it
90 citing papers in PubMed, 154 citations in OpenAlex.
- Natural Product-Inspired Antifungal Drugs Introduced for Human Use from 1872 to August 2026.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Challenges and opportunities in the management of severe pneumonia. Key concepts from the Seventh Annual Meeting of Spanish Experts 2025.Revista espanola de quimioterapia : publicacion oficial de la Sociedad Espanola de Quimioterapia · 2026Review
- Rezafungin as Primary Prophylaxis ofJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Article
- Single-cell RNA sequencing defines developmental progression and reproductive transitions ofMicrobiology spectrum · 2025Article
- The 2025 EQUALJAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2025Article
- Detection and Remediation of Pneumocystis murina Infections by Environmental Health Monitoring.Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science : JAALAS · 2025Article
- An overview of the laboratory diagnosis ofJournal of clinical microbiology · 2025Review
- The distinctive pharmacokinetic profile of rezafungin, a long-acting echinocandin developed in the era of modern pharmacometrics.The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · 2025Review
- Retracing the evolution ofMicrobiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2024Review
- Novel antifungals and treatment approaches to tackle resistance and improve outcomes of invasive fungal disease.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2024Review
- Insights into copper sensing and tolerance inFrontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Lessons from Multiple Infections Such as Lymphoma Complicated with Pneumocystis Infection: A Case Report.Infection and drug resistance · 2024Article
- Trends in the Epidemiology ofJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Detection ofJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Genetic Mouse Models of Pneumocystis Pneumonia.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2023Review
- The Pathogenesis and Diagnosis ofJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- The Effects of Sex and Strain onJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Genome-wide quantification of contributions to sexual fitness identifies genes required for spore viability and health in fission yeast.PLoS genetics · 2022Article
- Targeted NGS-Based Analysis ofJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
30 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Fungi in the genus Pneumocystis cause pneumonia (PCP) in hosts with debilitated immune systems and are emerging as co-morbidity factors associated with chronic diseases such as COPD. Limited therapeutic choices and poor understanding of the life cycle are a result of the inability of these fungi to grow outside the mammalian lung. Within the alveolar lumen, Pneumocystis spp., appear to have a bi-phasic life cycle consisting of an asexual phase characterized by binary fission of trophic forms and a sexual cycle resulting in formation of cysts, but the life cycle stage that transmits the infection is not known. The cysts, but not the trophic forms, express beta -1,3-D-glucan synthetase and contain abundant beta -1,3-D-glucan. Here we show that therapeutic and prophylactic treatment of PCP with echinocandins, compounds which inhibit the synthesis of beta -1,3-D-glucan, depleted cysts in rodent models of PCP, while sparing the trophic forms which remained in significant numbers. Survival was enhanced in the echincandin treated mice, likely due to the decreased beta -1,3-D-glucan content in the lungs of treated mice and rats which coincided with reductions of cyst numbers, and dramatic remodeling of organism morphology. Strong evidence for the cyst as the agent of transmission was provided by the failure of anidulafungin-treated mice to transmit the infection. We show for the first time that withdrawal of anidulafungin treatment with continued immunosuppression permitted the repopulation of cyst forms. Treatment of PCP with an echinocandin alone will not likely result in eradication of infection and cessation of echinocandin treatment while the patient remains immunosuppressed could result in relapse. Importantly, the echinocandins provide novel and powerful chemical tools to probe the still poorly understood bi-phasic life cycle of this genus of fungal pathogens.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.