Blocking Candida albicans Biofilm Formation by BDSF and trans-BDSF
Lixing Weng
Department of Microbiology and Microbial Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, PR China
Abstract:
Candida is an important opportunistic human fungal pathogen. The infection caused by C. albicans is related to the formation of biofilm, which enhances C. albicans’s resistance of defense system as well as antifungal drug and induces increase of drug tolerance. Therefore, it makes clinical care more challenging. The quantitative analysis of formation of biofilm was performed by XTT [2,3-bis(2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfo-phenyl)-2H-tetrazolium-5-carboxanilide] reduction assay to evaluate effect of different concentration of BDSF and trans-BDSF at different time. They at 300 µM gave about 90% and 60% reduction in biofilm formation at 0 and 1 h, and were more effective against biofilm formation than farnesol and DSF. All chemicals were not able to destroy pre-formed biofilms. Further visualization of the biofilm structure and formation process revealed reduction in C. albicans biofilm in response to them by inverted microscope. Northern blot showed the mRNA expression levels of hyphae specific gene HWP1 encoding hyphal wall protein were downregulated after BDSF or trans-BDSF treatment. The results demonstrated that BDSF and trans-BDSF can interfere with the biofilm formation in C. albicans as potential therapeutic agent for further study.
