Mathematical Modeling of Fluconazole Resistance in the Ergosterol Pathway of Candida albicans

, the most common species of which is Candida albicans. The current antifungal agent of choice for the treatment of candidiasis is fluconazole, which is classified under the azole antifungals. There has been a significant increase in fluconazole-resistant C. albicans in recent years, which has revealed the need for a search for other possible drug targets. We constructed a mathematical model of the ergosterol pathway in C. albicans using ordinary differential equations with mass action kinetics. In our simulations, we found that by increasing the amount of the sterol-methyltransferase enzyme, C. albicans becomes more susceptible to fluconazole. This study hopes to aid experimenters in narrowing down the possible drug targets prior to costly and time-consuming experiments and to serve as a cross-validation tool for experimental data.