Anidulafungin is a Useful Surrogate Marker for Predicting Susceptibility to Rezafungin Among Five Species Using CLSI Methods and Interpretive Criteria

This study addresses the use of other echinocandins as surrogate markers to predict the susceptibility of rezafungin against the six most common spp. The Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) reference broth microdilution method was performed to test 5,720 clinical isolates of six different species. Species-specific interpretative criteria by CLSI breakpoints or epidemiological cutoff values were applied. Essential agreement was 100% within two doubling dilutions for all species and comparisons. The categorical agreement of rezafungin using anidulafungin against all spp. was 97.6% (2.9% very major errors [VMEs], 0.2% major errors [MEs], and 2.2% minor errors [miEs]); for caspofungin, it was 99.6% (11.4% VME, 0.09% ME, and 0.19% miE); and for micafungin, it was 99.6% (14.3% VME, 0.15% ME, and 0.17% miE). There were species-specific differences that led to unacceptably high VME for with all agents and for when caspofungin or micafungin but not anidulafungin was used as the comparator. Genetic analysis showed rezafungin nonsusceptibility correlated well with FKS hotspot mutations. The best-performing surrogate was anidulafungin, which can be used to predict rezafungin susceptible or nonsusceptible in and with low error rates and ≥90% essential and categorical agreement. Micafungin or caspofungin can also be used as a surrogate marker for predicting rezafungin susceptible or nonsusceptible in , , , and . No surrogate performs appropriately to determine rezafungin susceptibility for .