Chou S, Li Q, Wu H, Li J, Chang YF, Shang L, Li J, Wang Z, Shan A. Selective Antifungal Activity and Fungal Biofilm Inhibition of
Tryptophan Center Symmetrical Short Peptide.
Int J Mol Sci 2021;
22:ijms22158231. [PMID:
34360998 PMCID:
PMC8348200 DOI:
10.3390/ijms22158231]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2021] [Revised: 07/19/2021] [Accepted: 07/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Candida albicans, an opportunistic fungus, causes dental caries and contributes to mucosal bacterial dysbiosis leading to a second infection. Furthermore, C.albicans forms biofilms that are resistant to medicinal treatment. To make matters worse, antifungal resistance has spread (albeit slowly) in this species. Thus, it has been imperative to develop novel, antifungal drug compounds. Herein, a peptide was engineered with the sequence of RRFSFWFSFRR-NH2; this was named P19. This novel peptide has been observed to exert disruptive effects on fungal cell membrane physiology. Our results showed that P19 displayed high binding affinity to lipopolysaccharides (LPS), lipoteichoic acids (LTA) and the plasma membrane phosphatidylinositol (PI), phosphatidylserine (PS), cardiolipin, and phosphatidylglycerol (PG), further indicating that the molecular mechanism of P19 was not associated with the receptor recognition, but rather related to competitive interaction with the plasma membrane. In addition, compared with fluconazole and amphotericin B, P19 has been shown to have a lower potential for resistance selection than established antifungal agents.
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