Título:	Activity of scorpion venom-derived antifungal peptides against planktonic cells of Candida spp. and Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida albicans Biofilms
Autor(es):	Guilhelmelli, Fernanda Vilela, Nathália Smidt, Karina S. Oliveira, Marco Antônio de Álvares, Alice da Cunha Morales Rigonatto, Maria Célia Larangeira Costa, Pedro Henrique Silva Tavares, Aldo Henrique Freitas, Sônia Maria de Nicola, André Moraes Franco, Octávio Luiz Derengowski, Lorena da Silveira Schwartz, Elisabeth Nogueira Ferroni Mortari, Márcia Renata Bocca, Anamelia Lorenzetti Albuquerque, Patrícia Pereira, Ildinete Silva
Assunto:	Infecção - fungos Escorpião - veneno Tratamento
Data de publicação:	18-Nov-2016
Editora:	Frontiers
Referência:	GUILHELMELLI, Fernanda et al. Activity of scorpion venom-derived antifungal peptides against planktonic cells of Candida spp. and Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida albicans Biofilms. Frontiers in Microbiology, v. 7, Article 1844, 18 nov. 2016. Disponível em: <http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01844/full>. Acesso em: 27 jul. 2017. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01844.
Abstract:	The incidence of fungal infections has been increasing in the last decades, while the number of available antifungal classes remains the same. The natural and acquired resistance of some fungal species to available therapies, associated with the high toxicity of these drugs on the present scenario and makes an imperative of the search for new, more efficient and less toxic therapeutic choices. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a potential class of antimicrobial drugs consisting of evolutionarily conserved multifunctional molecules with both microbicidal and immunomodulatory properties being part of the innate immune response of diverse organisms. In this study, we evaluated 11 scorpion-venom derived non-disulfide-bridged peptides against Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida spp., which are important human pathogens. Seven of them, including two novel molecules, showed activity against both genera with minimum inhibitory concentration values ranging from 3.12 to 200 μM and an analogous activity against Candida albicans biofilms. Most of the peptides presented low hemolytic and cytotoxic activity against mammalian cells. Modifications in the primary peptide sequence, as revealed by in silico and circular dichroism analyses of the most promising peptides, underscored the importance of cationicity for their antimicrobial activity as well as the amphipathicity of these molecules and their tendency to form alpha helices. This is the first report of scorpion-derived AMPs against C. neoformans and our results underline the potential of scorpion venom as a source of antimicrobials. Further characterization of their mechanism of action, followed by molecular optimization to decrease their cytotoxicity and increase antimicrobial activity, is needed to fully clarify their real potential as antifungals.
Licença:	Copyright © 2016 Guilhelmelli, Vilela, Smidt, de Oliveira, Álvares, Rigonatto, da Silva Costa, Tavares, Freitas, Nicola, Franco, Derengowski, Schwartz, Mortari, Bocca, Albuquerque and Silva-Pereira. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
DOI:	https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01844
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