Prophylactic Effects of Novel Allylamine Terbinafine Against Clinical Onset of Fungal Infection: An Experiment in Guinea Pigs Infected with Trichophyton mentagrophytes

Abstract

Prophylactic effect of a novel topical antifungal agent, terbinafine (TBF) was studied using a guinea pig model of dermatophytosis produced in the back of this animal. One to three days after a single local application of 1% TBF cream, Trichophyton mentagrophytes was inoculated into the pretreated site to see whether this formulation prevents the development of the fungal infection. One percent bifonazole (BFZ) cream was used as the reference. The results were as follows:
1. No clinical sign of infection was observed during 14 days after the inoculation in animals which had received a single pretreatment of 1% TBF cream 1 to 3 days prior to the infection.
2. Significant differences were observed in the lesion score reflecting clinical sign of infection between the TBF group and BFZ group (p<0.05) or the vehicle group (p<0.001), irrelevant to the day of pretreatment, i. e., 1, 2 or 3 days before the infection.
3. The culture negative rate measured 14 days after the infection for the TBF group was significantly higher than that for the vehicle and BFZ groups when the animals were pretreated 1 or 2 days (p<0.001), or 3 days before the infection (p<0.05).
These results show that the prophylactic activity of 1% TBF cream against infection T. mentagrophytes was superior to that of 1% BFZ cream, in terms of clinical sign and culturenegativity. This may also suggest better accumulation of topically applied TBF in the dermal tissue.