Table 3.

Summary of statin drugs with antifungal activity

Statins	Fungus	In vitro (MIC: μg/mL)	In vivo	In combination (synergistic effects)	Relevant molecular mechanism	Ref.
Lovastatin	Paecilomyces variotii	64	-	-	-	Chamilos et al. (2006); Nyilasi et al. (2010); Zhou et al. (2018)
	Rhizopus oryzae	128	-	-	-
	C. albicans	50–64	-	FLC, ITR	Inhibits ergosterol synthesis.
	C. glabrata	128	-	FLC	-
	A. fumigatus	25	-	FLC	-
	Zygomycetes	32–56	-	VRC	-
Simvastatin	C. glabrata	16–32	-	-	(I) Inhibits ergosterol synthesis; (II) Causes the loss of mtDNA.	Chamilos et al. (2006); Nyilasi et al. (2010); Westermeyer and Macreadie (2007)
	C. albicans	8	-	MIA	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010)
	C. utilis	200	-	MIA	Inhibits ergosterol synthesis.	Cabral et al. (2013)
	Cryptococcus spp.	62.5–1000	-	AmB, ITR, FLC	Inhibits ergosterol synthesis.	Silva et al. (2020)
	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	40	-	CTZ, ITR, MIA	Inhibits ergosterol synthesis.	Cabral et al. (2013)
	Paecilomyces variotii	8	-	-	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010)
	Rhizopus oryzae	64	-	-	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010)
	A. fumigatus	6.25	-	FLC	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010)
Pravastatin	C. albicans	No effects.	Mice	FLC	Inhibits farnesol production.	Nash et al. (2002)
Atorvastatin	C. albicans	16–256	G. mellonella	MIA	Inhibits ergosterol synthesis.	Nyilasi et al. (2010); Ajdidi et al. (2019); Esfahani et al. (2019)
	C. glabrata	4–64	-	FLC	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010); Esfahani et al. (2019); Lima et al. (2019)
	C. utilis	200	-	-	-	Silva et al. (2020)
	C. krusei	8	-	-	-	Esfahani et al. (2019)
	C. kefyr	4-16	-	-	-	Esfahani et al. (2019)
	Cryptococcus gattii	≥ 256	Mice	FLC	(I) Inhibits ergosterol synthesis; (II) Induces the production of ROS.	Chin et al. (1997); Ribeiro et al. (2017)
	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	40	-	CTZ, ITR, MIA	-	Cabral et al. (2013)
	C. stellatoidea	16	-	-	-	Esfahani et al. (2019)
	Rhizopus oryzae	32	-	ITR, KET	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010)
	Paecilomyces variotii	32	-	-	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010)
	Aspergillus flavus	> 128	-	ITR	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010)
	A. fumigatus	64	-	ITR, FLC, MIA, KET	(I) Stimulates oxidative stress response; (II) Inhibits ergosterol synthesis.	Nyilasi et al. (2010; Ajdidi et al. (2020)
Fluvastatin	C. albicans	25	No effects in mice	FLC	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010); Lima et al. (2019)
	C. glabrata	32–64	-	-	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010); Lima et al. (2019)
	C. tropicalis	128	-	-	-	Lima et al. (2019)
	C. dubliniensis	16–512	-	-	-	Lima et al. (2019)
	Cryptococcus spp.	64- >128	-	ITR, FLC	-	Chin et al. (1997)
	Paecilomyces variotii	25	-	-	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010)
	Rhizopus oryzae	2–3.125	-	KET, ITR	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010)
	A. fumigatus	2	-	-	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010)
	A. flavus	128	-	KET, MIA, ITR	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010)
Rosuvastatin	C. albicans	8–128	-	MIA	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010); Lima et al. (2019)
	C. glabrata	32–128	-	-	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010; Lima et al. (2019)
	C. utilis	200	-	MIA	-	Cabral et al. (2013)
	Paecilomyces variotii	32	-	-	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010)
	Saccharomyces cerevisiae	40	-	CTZ, ITR, MIA	-	Cabral et al. (2013)
	Rhizopus oryzae	> 128	-	KET, ITR	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010)
	A. fumigatus	128	-	ITR	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010)
	A. flavus	> 128	-	-	-	Nyilasi et al. (2010)
Pitavastatin	C. albicans, C. glabrata, C. auris	8	Caenorhabditis elegans	ITR, VRC, FLC	-	Eldesouky et al. (2020)

Note: VRC, voriconazole; AmB, amphotericin B; FLC, fluconazole; ITR, itraconazole; CTZ, clotrimazole; ANI, anidulafungin; MIA, micafungin; -, no relevant studies were mentioned in the corresponding references