Punicalagin triggers ergosterol biosynthesis disruption and cell cycle arrest in Cryptococcus gattii and Candida albican
- PDF / 3,455,088 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 6 Downloads / 165 Views
CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY - RESEARCH PAPER
Punicalagin triggers ergosterol biosynthesis disruption and cell cycle arrest in Cryptococcus gattii and Candida albicans Action mechanisms of punicalagin against yeasts Thaísa Cristina Silva 1 & Renato Ivan de Ávila 2 & Ana Laura Sene Amâncio Zara 1 & Andressa Santana Santos 1 & Fábio Ataídes 1 & Vivianny Aparecida Queiroz Freitas 1 & Carolina Rodrigues Costa 1 & Marize Campos Valadares 2 & Maria do Rosário Rodrigues Silva 1,3 Received: 17 March 2020 / Accepted: 8 August 2020 # Sociedade Brasileira de Microbiologia 2020
Abstract Punicalagin is a phenolic compound extracted from Lafoensia pacari A. St.-Hil (Lythraceae) leaves. It has demonstrated interesting activity against pathogenic fungi, e.g., Cryptococcus gattii and Candida albicans, by inhibiting fungi growth in a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) at 4 μg/mL. However, the mechanisms behind its antifungal action are not well understood. In this study, certain parameters were investigated, by transmission electron microscopy, ergosterol synthesis inhibition, and flow cytometry analyses, to gain insight into the possible biological targets of punicalagin (4 or 16 μg/mL) against yeast cells. Data showed that, in contrast to untreated cells, punicalagin triggered severe ultrastructural changes in C. gattii and C. albicans, such as disorganization of cytoplasmic content and/or thickened cell walls. In addition, it caused a decrease in yeast plasma membrane ergosterol content in a concentration-dependent manner. However, it was unable to bring about significant fungal cell membrane rupture. On the other hand, punicalagin (16 μg/mL) significantly arrested C. albicans and C. gattii cells at the G0/G1 phase, with a consequent reduction in cells at the G2/M phase in both fungi isolates, and thereby prevented progression of the normal yeast cell cycle. However, these alterations showed no involvement of reactive oxygen species overproduction in C. albicans and C. gattii cells, although punicalagin triggered a significant loss of mitochondrial membrane potential in C. albicans. These findings suggest that punicalagin is a promising plant-derived compound for use in developing new antifungal therapies. Keywords Polyphenol . Natural products . Antifungal activity . Ergosterol biosynthesis . Cell cycle . Cryptococcus gattii . Candida albicans
Introduction Fungal infections in immunocompromised patients have substantially increased in number and severity over the last five Responsible Editor: Fernando R. Pavan * Maria do Rosário Rodrigues Silva [email protected] 1
Instituto de Patologia Tropical e Saúde Pública, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil
2
Laboratório de Ensino e Pesquisa em Toxicologia In Vitro – Tox In, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil
3
Goiânia, Brazil
decades. The Cryptococcus neoformans species complex and Candida spp. continued to be the main yeast pathogens causing infections in humans [1]. Cryptococcal meningitis is the most common form of cryptoc
Data Loading...
