Anti-Candida activity of the anti-cancer drug tamoxifen
Beggs, W.H.
Research Communications in Chemical Pathology and Pharmacology 80(1): 125-128
1993
ISSN/ISBN: 0034-5164 PMID: 8488339 Document Number: 417583
Earlier workers found that tamoxifen, a drug widely used to treat breast cancer, can exert a marked antifungal action against the non-pathogenic yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In this report, the earlier observation has been extended to Candida albicans, the most important of the opportunistic fungal pathogens. Experiments in which antifungal effect against logarithmic phase cells was monitored by viable count as a function of drug exposure time clearly showed that tamoxifen is highly fungicidal at 2.0 times 10-5M, moderately and transiently fungicidal at 1.0 times 10-5M, but only very weakly fungistatsic at 5.0 times 10-6M.