Anticapsular and Antifungal Activity of α-Cyperone
Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA
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Antibiotics 2021, 10(1), 51; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10010051
Received: 3 December 2020
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Revised: 24 December 2020
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Accepted: 31 December 2020
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Published: 6 January 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Targets and Mechanisms in Antimicrobial Drug Discovery)
Fungal infections affect 300 million people and cause 1.5 million deaths globally per year. With the number of immunosuppressed patients increasing steadily, there is an increasing number of patients infected with opportunistic fungal infections such as infections caused by the species of Candida and Cryptococcus. In fact, the drug-resistant Can. krusei and the emerging pan-antifungal resistant Can. auris pose a serious threat to human health as the existing limited antifungals are futile. To further complicate therapy, fungi produce capsules and spores that are resistant to most antifungal drugs/host defenses. Novel antifungal drugs are urgently needed to fill unmet medical needs. From screening a collection of medicinal plant sources for antifungal activity, we have identified an active fraction from the rhizome of Cyperus rotundus, the nut grass plant. The fraction contained α-Cyperone, an essential oil that showed fungicidal activity against different species of Candida. Interestingly, the minimal inhibitory concentration of α-Cyperone was reduced 8-fold when combined with a clinical antifungal drug, fluconazole, indicating its antifungal synergistic potential and could be useful for combination therapy. Furthermore, α-Cyperone affected the synthesis of the capsule in Cryp. neoformans, a causative agent of fungal meningitis in humans. Further work on mechanistic understanding of α-Cyperone against fungal virulence could help develop a novel antifungal agent for drug-resistant fungal pathogens.
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Keywords:
α-Cyperone; essential oil; Cyperus rotundus; Candida spp.; Candida krusei; Candida auris; Cryptococcus neoformans; anti-capsule; fluconazole synergy
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MDPI and ACS Style
Horn, C.; Vediyappan, G. Anticapsular and Antifungal Activity of α-Cyperone. Antibiotics 2021, 10, 51. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10010051
AMA Style
Horn C, Vediyappan G. Anticapsular and Antifungal Activity of α-Cyperone. Antibiotics. 2021; 10(1):51. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10010051
Chicago/Turabian StyleHorn, Connor, and Govindsamy Vediyappan. 2021. "Anticapsular and Antifungal Activity of α-Cyperone" Antibiotics 10, no. 1: 51. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10010051
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