Stable Redox-Cycling Nitroxide Tempol Has Antifungal and Immune-Modulatory Properties.

ABSTRACT: Invasive mycoses remain underdiagnosed and difficult to treat. Hospitalized individuals with compromised immunity increase in number and constitute the main risk group for severe fungal infections. Current antifungal therapy is hampered by slow and insensitive diagnostics and frequent toxic side effects of standard antifungal drugs. Identification of new antifungal compounds with high efficacy and low toxicity is therefore urgently required. We investigated the antifungal activity of tempol, a cell-permeable nitroxide. To narrow down possible mode of action we used RNA-seq technology and metabolomics to probe for pathways specifically disrupted in the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans due to tempol administration. We found genes upregulated which are involved in iron homeostasi

SUBMITTER: Hosseinzadeh A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6710993 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature