ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>XI International Meeting on Paracoccidioidomycosis</TITLE><link rel=STYLESHEET type=text/css href=css.css></HEAD><BODY aLink=#ff0000 bgColor=#FFFFFF leftMargin=0 link=#000000 text=#000000 topMargin=0 vLink=#000000 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0><table align=center width=700 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td align=left bgcolor=#cccccc valign=top width=550><font face=arial size=2><strong><font face=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif size=3><font size=1>XI International Meeting on Paracoccidioidomycosis</font></font></strong><font face=Verdana size=1><b><br></b></font><font face=Verdana, Arial,Helvetica, sans-serif size=1><strong> </strong></font></font></td><td align=right bgcolor=#cccccc valign=top width=150><font face=arial size=2><strong><font face=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif size=1><font size=1>Resume:81-1</font></em></font></strong></font></td></tr><tr><td colspan=2><br><br><table align=center width=700><tr><td><b>Oral / Poster</b><br><table width="100%"><tr><td width="60">81-1</td><td><b>Immunomodulating Activity of Antifungal Drug: Itraconazole</b></td></tr><tr><td valign=top>Authors:</td><td><u>Tonny Williams Naranjo Preciado </u> (CIB - Corporacion para Investigaciones BiologicasUPB - Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana) ; Damaris Elena Lopera (CIB - Corporacion para Investigaciones Biologicas) ; Angela Restrepo Moreno (CIB - Corporacion para Investigaciones Biologicas) ; Luz Elena Cano Restrepo (CIB - Corporacion para Investigaciones BiologicasUDEA - Universidad de AntioquiaUPB - Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana) ; Andres Felipe Zuluaga (UDEA - Universidad de Antioquia) </td></tr></table><p align=justify><b><font size=2>Abstract</font></b><p align=justify class=tres><font size=2>Treatment of most superficial and systemic fungal infections is focused in a limited number of antifungal drugs, namely, polyenes, echinocandins and azolic derivates, among them, itraconazole (ITC), a medication frequently prescribed and considered the treatment of choice for most of the endemic mycoses. Although its antifungal activity has been clearly established, its immunomodulatory activity is not well known. The present study investigated ITC s effects as modulator compound on twenty-eight molecules endowed with immunological activity, including anti- and pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and growth factors, taking into consideration their lung concentrations in healthy mice. Two experimental groups of 20 BALB/c male mice each were used as follow: (a) control group, PBS treated mice; (b) ITC treated mice (1 mg/day). Mice were treated daily via gavage for 8 weeks and sacrificed at 0, 4, 8 and 12 weeks; their lungs were dissected, macerates and the supernatants used to measure pulmonary cytokine levels by the Bio-Plex® system. Further, lungs from five ITC treated mice were used for histopathological analysis. The statistical analyses were performed by student t-test assuming a significant difference when p <0.05. In comparison with the control group, ITC-treated mice showed significant changes in pulmonary levels in almost 50% of the molecules tested with some of them experimenting specific changes at the begin or at the end of treatment (IL-1&#945;, IL-1&#946;, IL-2, MIP-1&#945;, MIP-2, LIF, VEGF), others exhibited alterations during the treatment and even 4 weeks after the end (IL-4, IL-10, IL-12p70, IL-13, IL-15, TNF-&#945;, Eotaxin). Despite the fact that the histopathological analysis did not reveal changes in the lungs cells infiltrates, this study demonstrated that ITC exerts a marked immunomodulatory effect at pulmonary level in healthy mice. </font></p><br><b>Keyword: </b>&nbsp;Itraconazol, Immunomodulation, Cytokines</td></tr></table></tr></td></table></body></html>