Villanueva–Lozano H, et al. – Authors performed a prospective, double–blinded, and randomized study in a Mexican tertiary care center to evaluate the antifungal activity of sertraline in the treatment of cryptococcal meningitis in HIV patients. They identified no statistically significant difference between study groups (group A was given standard antifungal treatment plus sertraline 200 mg/day, while group B was given standard antifungal plus placebo). they identified this as the first study in Latin America that reported the experience of using sertraline as an adjuvant in the antifungal management of cryptococcal meningitis in HIV patients.

Methods

• Authors recruited and included patients in one of two study groups during June 2015–December 2016: group A was given standard antifungal treatment plus sertraline 200 mg/day, while group B was given standard antifungal plus placebo.
• They performed lumbar punctures on days 0, 7, and 14 of the study, and evaluated cryptococcal antigenemia and quantitative fungal culture in cerebrospinal fluid at each time point to measure the rate of fungal clearance.

Results

• A marked tendency to decrease in the fungal loads and cryptococcal antigenemia titers was observed by day 14 in both groups.
• Otherwise, group B indicated a slightly higher nonstatistical rate of fungal clearance (-0.2868 ± 0.08275 log CFU/ml/day) than group A (-0.2496 ± 0.08340 log CFU/ml/day).