Talk:Amphotericin B

Nanotechnology
Research work is going on AmphotericinB with concepts from Nanotechnology for early identification or AIDS


 * Well, provide a reference and stick it in the article! I fail to understand how an antifungal could be of any use in detecting viral particles, but I hope you can enlighten us. JFW | T@lk  13:41, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Sorry that I added this to the uses section, I was just refering to information found in here. The quote is "Both amphotericin B and doxorubicin have been investigated as potentially effective against CJD, but as yet there is no strong evidence that either drug is effective..."

Also, searches of this drug with CJD show that testing has been done with these. I didn't see references for anything else on this page and didn't want to add a references section just for this one comment.

I do not profess to be a doctor. I just saw that info on the CJD article had AmphotericinB in it and decided to add it here. --Thingy1 (talk) 18:08, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

amphotericin-b CAPSULES
NON-TOXIC form of amphotericin-b

New delivery system
This was added:


 * Researchers (Wasan KM et al.) at the University of British Columbia (Canada) discovered new drug delivery system for Amphotericin B (AMB), bypassing notable renal toxicity associated with currently available intravenous AMB formulation. A clinical study of the drug delivery system, involving 50-100 patients, is planned for later this year. Newer oral AMB preparation will provide more effective, less toxic and cheaper alternative to intravenous AMB, as per press release submitted on 5-March-2006.

This needs rewriting. What is the delivery system? Why is it different from AmBisome? What benefits are expected? Why do we need to mention a system that hasn't even finished its trials? JFW | T@lk  22:35, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I agree, this is too vague. Also, instead of citing press releases, which are about as useful and unskewed as Pravda or Faux News, we would need the original reference for evaluation.

Instead of listing all commercial preparations, it would be more useful to emphasize the common principle of the lipid/liposome preparations, i.e. the reduction of the free concentration of amphotericin B, which prevents it from accumulation at toxic concentrations in human cell membranes. The fungal cell membranes, since they contain ergosterol, bind amphotericin more avidly and will extract the amphotericin from the liposomal carriers over time.

Re the other 'news' on potassium efflux not always leading to cell death: That is old stuff; cell killing is dose-dependent. I don't think it has been shown that the concentrations that are reached inside the fungal cell membranes in vivo are sublethal. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.97.47.157 (talk) 23:55, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Amphotericin is commercially available as an oral preparation. One example of such is Fungilin lozenges. 14.200.249.238 (talk) 08:21, 27 May 2013 (UTC)

Amphotericin Image
The chemical structure at the beginning of the article is not correct. Specifically, all stereocenters on the mycosamine sugar are inverted.

Additionally, with regard to the following passage under the Mechanism of Action section: ''Recently, however, researchers found evidence that pore formation is not necessarily linked to cell death (i.e. Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed. Engl. 2004). The actual mechanism of action may be more complex and multi-faceted.'' Aside from likely being primary literature, the citation provided is incomplete, and no additional reference is given. Without proper referencing, this should probably be deleted. Knappdm (talk) 22:20, 16 April 2009 (UTC)


 * This edit (User:The chemistds, 8 October 2012) replaced the intro image to address stereochemical concerns. DMacks (talk) 17:18, 3 January 2022 (UTC)

There are also some stereochemical errors in the biosynthetic intermediates, which likely originate in the published literature. A correction was published, DOI 10.1016/S1074-5521(03)00007-3 Mert0014 (talk) 10:51, 30 May 2019 (UTC)
 * I removed the old image from the article. Anyone is welcome to create an updated one. DMacks (talk) 19:47, 3 January 2022 (UTC)

misc. problems
"Routes" has "slow i.v.-infusion only" but "Uses" states that "oral preparations of amphotericin B are used". The molecular mass is 924.08 not 923.49. (Do the math: H=1.00794, C=12.0107, N=14.0067, O=15.9994) Amphotericin A has a single bond between the 28th & 29th carbons not a double bond between C-27 & C-28 (Journal of Antibiotics 38 175). The primary effect leading to fungal cell death is direct binding to ergosterol; pore formation is a secondary mechanism (PNAS 109 2234). 69.72.27.135 (talk) 05:16, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

Oral Preparations
Quote "An oral preparation exists, but is not commercially available"

This is not correct. I have in front of me a recently bought (France) 40ml bottle of "Fungizone 10 per cent oral suspension" with leaflet in English and French. Date of leaflet revision May 1999. Date de revision de la notice Avril 2010. Composition : AMPHOTERICIN B quantity equivalent to 10g of Amphotericin B (potency 1000µg/mg) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fuhndhu (talk • contribs) 16:49, 11 July 2016 (UTC)

Not only available, but I am taking it four times a day as "FUNGIZONE 10%, suspension buvable Amphotéricine B". This suspension is intended for topical application to the digestive tract, as an oral systemic supplement to the topical treatment of thrush / ringworm and as a preventive treatment for immunocompromised patients. Cost for 20 day course of 80 5 ml doses is €45.

Quote "In the past it had been used for fungal infections of the surface of the GI tract such as thrush, but has been replaced by other antifungals such as nystatin and fluconazole"

Not replaced by, displaced by - last time my doctor prescribed fluconazole (much cheaper) this time amphotericin B, a question of resistance?

Made by Haupt Pharma Wolfratshausen GMBH, marketed by Bristol Myers Squibb.TonyTebby (talk) 14:54, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

Valley fever
I ran into some articles such as Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasii, the "causative agents" of Valley fever, that is serious (one reference). The use of Amphotericin B, specifically when administered by injection or Intravenous therapy for Meningitis ties into these articles and links to this one. The endemic area of Coccidioidomycosis is all or parts of several states and another country so there should be inclusion to tie these article together. C. immitis appears to be in California and Arizona and C. posadasii the rest. Otr500 (talk) 12:08, 20 November 2016 (UTC)