Mariam Baloch

Candida auris (C. auris) is a multidrug-resistant yeast pathogen first identified in Japan in 2009. Currently, most C. auris cases come from the New York area, making it crucial to analyze the susceptibility of isolates to antifungals. Clade I New York Candida auris isolates were used to test efficacy of 10 antifungals ranging from 4 different drug classes: azoles, echinocandins, polyenes, and anti-pyrimidines. To test antifungal resistance, Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) Broth Microdilution for azoles and echinocandins class is conducted. For the polyenes and anti-pyrimidines class, data is gathered via the Epsilometer test (E-test). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) helped us identify the least and most effective antifungal agent. Results from a 2016 to 2018 study (Zhu et al, 2020) were used as comparison values for this study to determine any significant changes in patterns in susceptibility. The Chi-square test is performed in order to determine the statistical significance of data. Flucytosine (FC) was noted to increase in resistance as it had a high MIC90 value of 64 μg/ml. Fluconazole (FLZ) showed to be 100% susceptible to C. auris. On the other hand, the Anidulafungin (AFG) & Micafungin (MF) showed to be the most effective as it had the smallest number of resistant isolates with an average of 0.7% resistance. Additionally, Posaconazole (POS) showed potential in treatment as it had the smallest range of MIC values ranging from 0.03 μg/ml and 1 μg/ml, suggesting a trend of consistency.