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Resveratrol lacks antifungal activity against Candida albicans

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Abstract

The putative candicidal activity of resveratrol is currently a matter of controversy. Here, the antifungal activity as well as the antioxidant response of resveratrol against Candida albicans, have been tested in a set of strains with a well-established genetic background At the doses usually employed in antifungal tests (10–40 μg/ml), resveratrol has no effect on the exponential growth of the C. albicans CAI.4 strain, a tenfold increase (400 μg/ml) was required in order to record a certain degree of cell killing, which was negligible in comparison with the strong antifungal effect caused by the addition of amphotericin B (5 μg/ml). An identical pattern was recorded in the prototrophic strains of C. albicans SC5314 and RM-100, whereas the oxidative sensitive trehalose-deficient mutant (tps1/tps1 strain) was totally refractory to the presence of resveratrol. In turn, the serum-induced yeast-to-hypha transition remained unaffected upon addition of different concentrations of resveratrol. Determination of endogenous trehalose and catalase activity, two antioxidant markers in C. albicans; revealed no significant changes in their basal contents induced by resveratrol. Collectively, our results seem to dismiss a main antifungal role as well as the therapeutic application of resveratrol against the infections caused by C. albicans.

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Acknowledgments

We are indebted to Dr. M. A. Pedreño (University of Murcia) for her kind provision of resveratrol, critical reading of the manuscript and useful suggestions. The experimental work was supported in part by grant BIO-BMC 06/01-0003 from Dirección General de Investigación (Comunidad de Murcia, Spain). We are also indebted to the financial contract provided by Cespa, S.A.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Área de Microbiología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, 30071, Murcia, Spain

    Mar Collado-González, José P. Guirao-Abad, Ruth Sánchez-Fresneda & Juan-Carlos Argüelles

  2. Departamento de Biología Vegetal, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, 30071, Murcia, Spain

    Sarai Belchí-Navarro

Authors
  1. Mar Collado-González
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  2. José P. Guirao-Abad
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  3. Ruth Sánchez-Fresneda
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  4. Sarai Belchí-Navarro
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  5. Juan-Carlos Argüelles
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Correspondence to Juan-Carlos Argüelles.

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Collado-González, M., Guirao-Abad, J.P., Sánchez-Fresneda, R. et al. Resveratrol lacks antifungal activity against Candida albicans . World J Microbiol Biotechnol 28, 2441–2446 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-012-1042-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-012-1042-1

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