Session: ACS Award for Encouraging Women into Careers in the Chemical Sciences: Symposium Honoring Katherine Franz :

The rise of drug resistant invasive fungal infections underscores the need for new antifungal drugs. Of the classes of antifungal drugs currently in use, the azoles are the most widely used and well tolerated. Our lab has previously shown that the addition of copper during fluconazole (Flu) treatment in Candia albicans potentiates drug activity and diminishes trailing growth in treated conditions at 48 hours compared to Flu alone. In efforts to exploit this synergy between Flu and Cu, we synthesized Flu analogs by incorporating Cu binding moieties in place of one of Flu’s triazole rings. Of the eight compounds prepared, three were biologically active and one showed an ability to further manipulate Cu in Cu import mutants of C. albicans. These findings and their potential implications in treatment of C. albicans will be discussed.

Katherine J McAuliffe

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