A major complication of
continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (
CAPD) is
peritonitis caused by Candida albicans. Increasing the activity of the peritoneal macrophages, the predominant cell type found in the peritoneal cavity, may be a promising treatment for this
infection.
Tuftsin was found to increase thioglycollate-elicited mouse peritoneal macrophage activity. 2x10(-7) M
tuftsin enhanced two-fold cell association with radiolabelled candida,
superoxide aniom production, and killing activity. Thus, a model consisting of mice undergoing
peritoneal dialysis was developed in order to study the use of
tuftsin as a therapeutic
drug against peritoneal
candidiasis. Administration of
tuftsin (50 micrograms/mouse) before
candidiasis induction with a lethal dose of candida (7x10(8) candida per mouse) improved mouse survival up to 70%, compared with 10% in the control group. The potential of
tuftsin as a treatment for
candidiasis was shown when the
infection was induced with a sublethal dose of candida. Daily
intraperitoneal injections of
tuftsin (50 micrograms) to the sublethally infected mice caused a significant decrease in the number of candida recovered from the peritoneal cavity and from the blood (from 700 +/- 190 to 110 +/- 26 CFU/ml and from 100 +/- 26 CFU/ml to 17 +/- 8 CFU/ml, respectively). In addition, a larger number of peritoneal macrophages with greater phagocytic and killing activity were found in the
tuftsin-treated mice. The effect of
tuftsin may promote its potential use in the
therapy of
peritonitis in patients undergoing chronic
peritoneal dialysis.