Chapter 14: Photodynamic Antifungal Chemotherapy

The incidence of mycotic skin infections in humans and animals is increasing worldwide. A growing resistance against commercially available antifungal drugs has renewed the search for alternative treatment modalities. In the last decades phenothiazine dyes, 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA), cationic porphyrins and phthalocyanines have created interest as antimicrobial photosensitizers due to their abilities to inactivate yeasts, dermatophytes and other fungi, gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Experimental studies have fuelled the thought that these photosensitizers could be successfully applied in humans as broadband antimicrobial agents that may not be affected by known drug resistance mechanisms. This chapter aims to provide an overview of investigative studies of anti-fungal photodynamic therapy (PDT) in vitro and in vivo.