In vivo probiotic and antimicrobial photodynamic therapy as alternative therapies against cryptococcosis are ineffective

•Cryptococcosis treatment is difficult and new therapies need to be developed.•Probiotic and aPDT alternative therapies against cryptococcosis are proposed.•Both probiotic and aPDT did not improve the survival of mice with cryptococcosis.•This study highlights the importance of correlating in vitro and in vivo therapies.•Negative results may help in tests of new therapies against cryptococcosis. Cryptococcosis, an invasive fungal infection distributed worldwide that affects both domestic and wild animals, has incredible rates regarding treatment failure, leading to the necessity of the development of new therapies. In this way, we aimed to evaluate the probiotic (Saccharomyces boulardii, Lactobacillus paracasei ST-11, and Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG) and antimicrobial photodynamic alternative therapies against Cryptococcus gattii in a murine model. Although previous studies suggest that these therapies can be promising against cryptococcosis, our experimental conditions for both probiotic and antimicrobial photodynamic therapies (aPDT) were not able to improve the survival of mice with cryptococcosis, even with the treatment combined with fluconazole. Our results may help other researchers to find the best protocol to test alternative therapies against Cryptococcus gattii.