In vivo efficacy of atorvastatin in the treatment of Tinea pedis: stepping forward into drug repositioning.

The assignment of new therapeutic purposes to drugs, known as drug repositioning, has been an important ally in the search for new antifungal drugs. Statin compounds, which are used systemically as cholesterol-lowering, may also exert direct antifungal effects, since the statins are drugs that act to prevent sterol synthesis in both humans and fungi and for this reason they are drug promising to combat mycoses. We evaluate the in vivo efficacy of an atorvastatin-loaded topic emulgel (0.75%, 1.5%, or 3.0% m/m) in an in vivo experimental model Tinea pedis. The results showed that the cutaneous delivery-atorvastatin showed total score reduction after seven days of treatment. We concluded that atorvastatin may be a promising drug for the treatment of superficial and cutaneous mycosis.