Murine model for disseminated Candidiasis

The three day murine intravenous challenge model was used to assay fungal virulence as previously described [61]. Immunocompetent female BALB/c mice (6–8 weeks; Harlan, UK) were randomly assigned to groups of 6 and housed separately in individually ventilated cages. Group size was determined from power analyses using data obtained from previous experiments using the same infection model and parental fungal strain. Group size (n = 6) is the minimum groups size required to determine statistically significant differences in the parameters measured, where P ≤0.05, Power = 0.8. Food and water were provided ad libitum. C. albicans was grown overnight in NGY medium at 30°C with shaking. Fungal cells were harvested, washed, resuspended in sterile saline, and cells were counted. Approximately 1x10⁶ cells were injected into each mouse via the lateral tail vein. The mice were monitored and weighed daily. At 72 h post-infection, mice were weighed, killed humanely by cervical dislocation, and their kidneys removed aseptically for determination of fungal burdens. Virulence outcome scores were determined by assessing renal fungal burden and percentage weight change at 72 h using the formula: outcome score = log (renal CFU g^-1)—(0.5 × percentage weight change) [61]. Results were compared using Kruskal-Wallis comparison across all data sets and Mann-Whitney U tests for pair-wise comparisons using IBM SPSS (version 23) * P ≤0.05; ** P ≤0.01; *** P ≤0.001.