Sensitivity of Four Various Candida Species To Photodynamic Therapy Mediated By Indocyanine Green, An in Vitro Study

Statement of the problem: various species of candida contribute to oral candidiasis. it is the time to shift from conventional rigid antimicrobial therapies to more patient specific and safer ones. purpose: the present study aimed to investigate antifungal effects of photodynamic therapy (pdt) using indocyanine green as photosensitizer and low-power laser irradiation on the viability of candida albicans, candida tropicalis, candida glabrata and candida krusei, and to compare it with nystatin as the conventional treatment. materials and method: in this in vitro study, 0.5 mcfarland suspensions of candida’s species were prepared (n=50, each). each strain was then divided into five groups of 10 samples each, according to the following experimental interventions: (1) nystatin, (2) photodynamic therapy: laser irradiation (wavelength= 808 nm, power= 100 mw, energy density= 10 j/cm^2, exposure duration= 100 s) in the presence of the photosensitizer, (3) laser irradiation alone, (4) treatment with the ps alone and (5-control: no exposure to laser light or photosensitizer. next, serial dilutions were prepared and seeded onto sabouraud dextrose agar. the colonies were counted, and the values of log (cfu/ml) were analyzed by variance and the tamhan test (p < 0.05). results: photodynamic therapy mediated indocyanine green is significantly effective in reducing the number of cfu/ml of all species of candida tested, compared to control group (p < .001). nystatin, laser irradiation and photodynamic therapy, with respectively decreasing potency, have considerably reduced the number of candida’s colonies in all four bacterial strains (p candida albicans, in comparison to control group. conclusion: it seems that laser therapy alone is more powerful than photodynamic therapy mediated indocyanine green; however, conventional treatment has still the top antimicrobial efficacy towards all candida species.