Antifungal Activity of Capric Acid, Nystatin, and Fluconazole and Their In Vitro Interactions Against Candida Isolates from Neonatal Oral Thrush.

Due to the increasing resistance of various Candida species to azole drugs, particularly fluconazole, it would be of significant importance to look for alternative therapies. The aim of this study was to investigate the antifungal activity of capric acid and its in vitro interactions with nystatin and fluconazole against Candida isolates. A total of 40 Candida isolates (C. albicans, 36; C. kefyr, 2; C. tropicalis, 1; C. glabrata, 1) collected from the oral cavity of neonates with oropharyngeal candidiasis and a reference strain of C. albicans (ATCC 10231) were used in this study. Antifungal activity of capric acid and two comparator antifungal drugs, namely fluconazole and nystatin, was tested according to CLSI M27-A3/M60 method. The in vitro interaction between capric acid with fluconazole and nystatin was determined following a checkerboard method and results were interpreted using fractional inhibitory concentration index. Nystatin had the lowest minimum inhibitory concentrations (range, 0.125-8 µg/mL; geometric mean [GM], 0.6229 µg/mL) followed by fluconazole (range, 0.5-16 µg/mL; GM, 1.9011 µg/mL) and capric acid (range, 128-2,048 µg/mL; GM, 835.9756 µg/mL). When tested in combination, capric acid with fluconazole demonstrated synergistic, indifferent, and antagonistic interactions in 3 (7.317%), 24 (58.536%), and 14 (34.146%) cases, respectively. For combination of capric acid with nystatin, synergistic, indifferent, and antagonistic interactions were observed in 1 (2.439%), 19 (46.341%), and 21 (51.219%) cases, respectively. All cases of synergistic interactions were against resistant or susceptible dose-dependent isolates. Fluconazole, nystatin, and capric acid seem to be more effective when they are used alone compared with their combination. However, their combination might be effective on resistant isolates.

Batch control system project for a pharmaceutical plant.

This paper describes a case study of a control system design for a batch pharmaceutical process. The ISA standard S88.01 batch control models and terminology were used as the main guidelines for the implementation. As the S88 is not a guide for how to apply the definitions/structures, etc., one of the main goals of our work was to create a methodology for decomposition of functional requirements in terms of S88 models and structures. This methodology was tested on a real problem, described in the case study. Also presented are some remarks on project methodology and Food and Drug Administration validation.