Karaleen Anderson; Mariel Hatch; Caeleb Harris; Karina Bravo; Rawly Lyle; Tyson Hill, Utah Valley University
Previous antifungal research involving Rhizopus oryzae has focused on planktonic cells alone and not on biofilm formation and treatment. This is problematic due to the increased antifungal resistance seen when treating bacterial and fungal biofilm compared to planktonic cells. The species Rhizopus oryzae is known to cause up to 80% of all Mucormycosis infections. Amp B is the current line of treatment for this disease, but is known to have many negative side effects such as being severely toxic to the liver and kidney and causing fever, shaking, and nausea. The basis of the experiment is to investigate the antifungal properties of clove oil and amphotericin B (amp B) against fungal biofilm produced from the species Rhizopus oryzae. By using amp B and clove oil synergistically, less amp B would be needed to observe the same amount of cell death than when using each antifungal agent alone. This research has important clinical application that could potentially impact the lives of those suffering from this rare, opportunistic disease.