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The in vitro, in vivo antifungal activity and the action mode of Jelleine-I against Candida species

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Abstract

Recently, the mortality of life-threatening fungal infections increased dramatically. However, there are few antifungals existed. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) as promising antifungal candidates have attracted much attention. Here, we present a small antimicrobial peptide Jelleine-I that had potent in vitro and in vivo antifungal activity. Negligible hemolytic activity and in vivo toxicity were observed. Selectivity index (SI) of Jelleine-I is at least 4.6 times higher than amphotericin B. Jelleine-I could increase the production of cellular ROS and bind with genome DNA. This may contribute to its antifungal activity. Furthermore, drug resistance is not induced when the fungal cells were repeatedly treated by Jelleine-I. In conclusion, our results suggest that Jelleine-I may have the potential to be developed as a novel antifungal agent.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support of the funds from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 81573265, 91213302, 21272108, 81473095), the Chunhui Program of Ministry of Education of China (Z2016002), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (nos. lzujbky-2017-k11, lzujbky-2017-128).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Preclinical Study for New Drugs of Gansu Province, School of Basic Medical Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, 222 Tian Shui South Road, Lanzhou, 730000, People’s Republic of China

    Fengjing Jia, Jiayi Wang, Jinxiu Peng, Ping Zhao, Kairong Wang, Wenjin Yan & Rui Wang

  2. Institute of Food Safety, State Key Laboratory Base of Food Quality and Safety, Ministry of Science and Technology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, 210014, China

    Ziqing Kong

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  1. Fengjing Jia
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  5. Ziqing Kong
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  6. Kairong Wang
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Correspondence to Kairong Wang, Wenjin Yan or Rui Wang.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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All procedures performed in studies involving animals were performed according to the ethical standards of Lanzhou University at which the studies were conducted.

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Handling Editor: J. González López.

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Jia, F., Wang, J., Peng, J. et al. The in vitro, in vivo antifungal activity and the action mode of Jelleine-I against Candida species. Amino Acids 50, 229–239 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-017-2507-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-017-2507-1

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