VALUE OF ANIMAL-MODELS IN THE EVALUATION OF ANTIFUNGAL AGENTS

Animal models of experimental infections allow to evaluate antifungal agents taking into account in vivo properties of the drug (pharmacokin etics, toxicity, drug interactions) and host defenses, These models ap pear particularly important in the case of antifungal drugs, since in vitro sensitivity testing is incompletly standardized and poorly predi ctive of in vivo efficacy, This paper focuses on the interest and limi ts of experimental fungal infections, either very simple models such a s Candida intravenous infection in mice, or more complicated and expen sive models, close to clinical situation.