Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jun;16(6):1284-1288.
doi: 10.14202/vetworld.2023.1284-1288. Epub 2023 Jun 9.

A pilot study on ultrashort peptide with fluconazole: A promising novel anticandidal combination

Rula M Darwish  1 , Ali H Salama  2
Affiliations

A pilot study on ultrashort peptide with fluconazole: A promising novel anticandidal combination

Rula M Darwish et al. Vet World. 2023 Jun.

Abstract

Background and aim: Human infections caused by Candida albicans are common and range in severity from relatively treatable skin and mucosal conditions to systemic, fatal invasive candidiasis. The treatment of fungal infections is challenged by major obstacles, including the scarcity of effective therapeutic options, the toxicity of available medications, and the escalating antifungal resistance. Hence, there exists an urgent need to develop new classes of antimicrobial agents. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of KW-23 peptide against standard and resistant strains of C. albicans alone and in combination with fluconazole.

Materials and methods: A conjugated ultrashort antimicrobial peptide (KW-23) was designed and synthesized. KW-23 was challenged against standard and multidrug-resistant C. albicans alone and in combination with fluconazole using standard antimicrobial and checkerboard assays. The toxicity of the peptide was examined using hemolytic assays.

Results: KW-23 positively affected the standard and resistant Candidal strains (at 5 and 15 μg/mL respectively), exhibiting potent synergistic antimicrobial activity against the standard strain when combined with fluconazole. The effect of the combination was additive against the resistant strain (0.6 μg/mL). Furthermore, the peptide exhibited negligible toxicity on human erythrocytes.

Conclusion: KW-23 and its combination with fluconazole could be a promising candidate for developing anticandidal agents.

Keywords: Candida albicans; drug combinations; fluconazole; synergism; ultrashort peptide.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure-1
Figure-1
The structure of KW-23 peptide.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. D'Enfert C, Kaune A.K, Alaban L.R, Chakraborty S, Cole N, Delavy M, Brown A.J. The impact of the Fungus-Host-Microbiota interplay upon Candida albicans infections:Current knowledge and new perspectives. FEMS Microbiol. Rev. 2021;45(3):fuaa060. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Naglik J.R, Gaffen S.L, Hube B. Candidalysin:Discovery and function in Candida albicans infections. Curr. Opin. Microbiol. 2019;52(4):100–109. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lu H, Shrivastava M, Whiteway M, Jiang Y. Candida albicans targets that potentially synergize with fluconazole. Crit. Rev. Microbiol. 2021;47(3):323–337. - PubMed
    1. Pristov K.E, Ghannoum M.A. Resistance of Candida to azoles and echinocandins worldwide. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. 2019;25(7):792–798. - PubMed
    1. do Nascimento Dias J, de Souza Silva C, de Araújo A.R, Souza J.M.T, de Holanda Veloso P.H, Jr, Cabral W.F, Silva-Pereira I. Mechanisms of action of antimicrobial peptides ToAP2 and NDBP-5.7 against Candida albicans planktonic and biofilm cells. Sci. Rep. 2020;10(1):10327. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources