Journal Article

Cinnamaldehyde inhibits Candida albicans growth by causing apoptosis and its treatment on vulvovaginal candidiasis and oropharyngeal candidiasis

Tian, Jun, Peng, Xue, Chen, Lei, Wang, Zhen, Liu, Liang, Qu, Su, Li, Yong-xin, Mao, Yuanyuan

2019

Overview

The invasion of Candida albicans is one of the most common fungal infections seen in clinical practice, and serious drug resistance has been reported in recent years. Therefore, new anti- C. albicans drugs must be introduced. In this research, it was demonstrated that cinnamaldehyde (CA) shows strong antimicrobial activity, with 0.26 mg/mL CA being the minimum inhibitory concentration to manage C. albicans . Extraordinarily, we detected that CA accumulated the intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and enhanced the calcium concentration in the cytoplasm and mitochondria through flow cytometry. In addition, we observed that C. albicans cells released Cytochrome c from the mitochondria to the cytoplasm, depolarized the mitochondrial membrane potential, and activated the metacaspase when exposed to 0.065, 0.13, 0.26, and 0.52 mg/mL CA. Furthermore, to confirm that CA introduces the C. albicans apoptosis, we discovered that when the phosphatidylserine was exposed, DNA damage and chromatin condensation occurred, which were detected by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) and 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining. Finally, demonstrations of phenotype investigation, colony-forming unit (CFU) counts, and periodic acid–Schiff (PAS) staining were conducted to prove that CA possessed the ability to treat oropharyngeal candidiasis (OPC) and vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC). From the above, our research indicates that CA is a promising antifungal candidate when applied to C. albicans infections.

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Acrolein - analogs & derivatives / Acrolein - pharmacology / Aldehydes / Animals / Antifungal agents / Antifungal Agents - pharmacology / Antimicrobial activity / Apoptosis / Apoptosis - drug effects / Applied Microbial and Cell Physiology / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biotechnology / Calcium / Calcium - metabolism / Candida albicans / Candida albicans - growth & development / Candidiasis / Candidiasis, Oral - drug therapy / Candidiasis, Oral - microbiology / Candidiasis, Oral - prevention & control / Candidiasis, Vulvovaginal / Candidiasis, Vulvovaginal - drug therapy / Candidiasis, Vulvovaginal - microbiology / Candidiasis, Vulvovaginal - prevention & control / Chromatin / Cinnamaldehyde / Cytochrome c / Cytochromes / Cytochromes c - metabolism / Cytoplasm / Depolarization / Disease Models, Animal / DNA damage / DNA nucleotidylexotransferase / Drug resistance / Female / Flow cytometry / Fungicides / Health aspects / Infection / Life Sciences / Male / Membrane potential / Membrane Potential, Mitochondrial - drug effects / Mice / Mice, Inbred BALB C / Microbial Genetics and Genomics / Microbial Sensitivity Tests / Microbiology / Minimum inhibitory concentration / Mitochondria / Mitochondria - metabolism / Phenotypes / Phosphatidylserine / Reactive oxygen species / Reactive Oxygen Species - metabolism / Staining