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Yeast caspase-dependent apoptosis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae BY4742 induced by antifungal and potential antitumor agent clotrimazole

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Abstract

Clotrimazole is an antifungal medication commonly used in the treatment of fungal infections. There is also promising research on using clotrimazole against other diseases such as malaria, beriberi, tineapedis and cancer. It was aimed to investigate the apoptotic phenotype in Saccharomyces cerevisiae induced by clotrimazole. The exposure of S. cerevisiae to 10 µM clotrimazole for 3, 6 and 9 h caused to decrease in cell viability by 24.82 ± 0.81, 56.00 ± 1.54 and 77.59 ± 0.53%, respectively. It was shown by Annexin V–PI assay that 110 µM clotrimazole treatment caused to death by 35.5 ± 2.48% apoptotic and only 13.1 ± 0.08% necrotic pathway within 30 min. The occurrence of DNA strand breaks and condensation could be visualised by the TUNEL and DAPI stainings, respectively. Yeast caspase activity was induced 12.34 ± 0.71-fold after 110 µM clotrimazole treatment for 30 min compared to the control. The dependency of clotrimazole-induced apoptosis to caspase was also shown using Δyca1 mutant.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Grants from Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBİTAK) with 116Z315 numbered project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Dokuz Eylul, Tinaztepe Campus, 35160, Buca, Izmir, Turkey

    Berna Kavakçıoğlu & Leman Tarhan

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  1. Berna Kavakçıoğlu
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  2. Leman Tarhan
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Correspondence to Leman Tarhan.

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Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt.

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Kavakçıoğlu, B., Tarhan, L. Yeast caspase-dependent apoptosis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae BY4742 induced by antifungal and potential antitumor agent clotrimazole. Arch Microbiol 200, 97–106 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-017-1425-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-017-1425-7

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