are more aggressively fungicidal, may be interesting ways of improving the clinical effectiveness of this group of drugs. For example, the combination of the echinocandin FK463 with chitin synthase inhibitor nikkomycin Z has been reported to be synergistic against A. Microcolony Analysis of Aspergillus fumigatus when tested in vitro. In our study, osmotic shock was shown to increase echinocandin-mediated lysis. We were also able to confirm previous work indicating that the calconeurine pathway inhibitor and immunosuppressive cyclosporine A enhanced the action of echinocandins. It is possible that “9357531 dosing methods, complementary drugs or cofactors may be found that improve treatment with existing echinocandins. Currently, some of the clinical effectiveness of the echinocandins against A. fumigatus in vivo is attributed to the exposure of cell antigens to the immune system; i.e. indirect effects as well as direct inhibition of fungal growth. It certainly appears possible that greater direct killing by this class of drugs is achievable. Culture on PAO is relatively simple, with the facility to gain quantitative data on microcolony growth with changes in the environment. Here this method has been used to investigate stress and recovery of a filamentous fungus from a particular class of therapeutic agents, the echinocandins. We suggest that this approach may be more widely usable, for example to investigate fungi difficult to study in other ways because of slow growth and/ or limitations of liquid culture methods such as aggregation. It is possible to change the properties of PAO, which may allow a systematic investigation as to how “1727148 filamentous fungi are affected by surfaces. Imaging by fluorescence microscopy can detect marginal growth and recovery from echinocandins. As gradients of drugs can be created beneath PAO supports, more complex drug effects can be investigated for example issues of 
synergy or antagonism between multiple antibiotics or growth under extreme stress. 7 Microcolony Analysis of Aspergillus or by using an E-strip aligned with the long axis of a 36 mm68 mm PAO strip. E-tests were performed directly on Sabouraud agar as recommended by the manufacturer, with 36 h incubation at 37uC. Cyclosporine A was obtained from Sigma Aldrich and was diluted from a stock solution of 25 mg/ml prepared in methanol. All experiments on growth on PAO, drug effects on PAO and conventional MIC testing were performed in triplicate. Recovery of A. fumigatus from echinocandins PAO strips were moved from plates containing echinocandins to those lacking the drugs in order to look at the potential for recovery from echinocandins. Because of the low volume of PAO strips relative to the agar beneath carry-over of drugs to plates lacking echinocandins was minimal. Scanning electron microscopy Fixation of microcolonies for imaging by SEM was by one of two methods: 1) gel fixation was achieved by transferring the strip of PAO to an agar plate containing Sabouraud medium with 1% glutaraldehyde for 30 min; 2) vapour fixation was performed by LY-411575 manufacturer inverting an agar plate above the glutaraldehyde/paraformaldehyde fixative for 2 h. In both cases, treatment with osmium tetroxide, ethanol dehydration, critical point drying, sputtering with tungsten and imaging by an FEI Magellan electron microscope were as previously described. Staining and fluorescence microscopy Staining of A. fumigatus and A. terreus with pairs of dyes was performed by transferring the PAO strip t