Resumo

Introduction: The frequency of disseminated candidiasis has enhancing in intensive care unit and C. albicans is the fourth most common pathogen in hospital-acquire bloodstream in the EUA. Despite the availability of new antifungal drugs, C. albicans sepsis mortality causes can be as high as 30-40%. So, we are looking for a new therapeutic medicament that helps in treatment and prevention of this infection, like the immunopharmacological agent, the β-1,3 glucan polysaccharide which has a well-documented activities anti-tumor, anti-viral, bacterial and fungal infections. Previous data demonstrated that particulated β-glucan stimulates the immune system and experiments have been conducted to investigating if β-glucan extracted from Saccharomices cerevisiae, has immunomodulatory effects against disseminated C. albicans. Objective: In this study was verified the influence of β-1,3 glucan on survival of mice model of Candida albicans sepsis. Methods and Results: In this work was used BALB/c female mice weighting 21 to 26g and 6 weeks old. The mice were supplied with food and water ad libitum. The experiments were approved by the Ethics Committee on Animal Experiments of UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO NORTE. Animals received 5x108 cells of C.albicans SC5314 strain intravenously and were caged in 2 different groups (G1- without β-1,3 glucan treatment and G2 - treated with β-1,3 glucan extracted from Fleischmann's® Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a concentration of 5 mg/mL of sterile saline solution administered in the amount of 1mL intraperitoneally) of 15 animals each. After this protocol we certified that animals treated with β-1,3 glucan survived and animals that were not treated with glucan died. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that β-1,3 glucan triggers effective immune response against the fungal infection showing a better survival in animals treated with glucan when compared with animals not treated.