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In Vitro and In Vivo Anti-Candida albicans Activity of a Scorpion-Derived Peptide

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Abstract

The increasing infection and drug resistance frequency has encouraged the exploration of new and effective anti-Candida albicans agents. In this study, CT-K3K7, a scorpion antimicrobial peptide derivative, effectively inhibit the growth of C. albicans. CT-K3K7 killed C. albicans cells in a dose-dependent manner, mainly by damaging the plasma membrane. CT-K3K7 could also disrupt the nucleus and interact with nucleic acid. Moreover, CT-K3K7 induced C. albicans cells necrosis via a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-related pathway. Furthermore, CT-K3K7 inhibited the hyphal and biofilm formation of C. albicans. In the mouse skin subcutaneous infection model, CT-K3K7 significantly prevented skin abscess formation and reduced the number of C. albicans cells recovered from the infection area. Taken together, CT-K3K7 has the potential to be a therapeutic for C. albicans skin infections.

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No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

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Funding

This research was funded by the Key Specialized Research and Development Breakthrough in Henan Province (grant no: 232102310197).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Translational Medicine Institute, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Xiʼan Jiaotong University, Xiʼan, 710049, China

    Zhongjie Li & Lingyu Zhao

  2. Microbial Pathogen and Anti-Infection Research Group, School of Basic Medicine and Forensic Medicine, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, 471000, China

    Zhongjie Li, Yingbin Shui, Huayi Wang, Shasha Li, Bo Deng & Wenlu Zhang

  3. Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Microbiota and Esophageal Cancer Prevention and Control, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, 471000, China

    Zhongjie Li & Shegan Gao

  4. The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, 471000, China

    Shegan Gao

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  1. Zhongjie Li
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Contributions

ZL, HW, and SL: Methodology, Investigation. ZL, YS, HW, SL, BD, and WZ: Validation, Formal analysis, Data curation. ZL and WZ: Writing – review & editing. WZ: Funding acquisition. SG and LZ: Supervision, Resources. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Zhongjie Li, Shegan Gao or Lingyu Zhao.

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Ethical Statement

All the animal associated experiments were conducted following the Animal Care Ethics guidelines with protocols approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of Henan University of Technology and Science. The mice were humanely euthanized (anesthetized by intra-peritoneal pentobarbital injection and sacrificed by cervical dislocation) at the end of the experiments.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Li, Z., Shui, Y., Wang, H. et al. In Vitro and In Vivo Anti-Candida albicans Activity of a Scorpion-Derived Peptide. Probiotics & Antimicro. Prot. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12602-024-10233-3

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