Open AccessExposure of the yeast Candida albicans to the anti‐neoplastic agent adriamycin increases the tolerance to amphotericin B
Author(s) -
O'Keeffe Joseph,
Doyle Sean,
Kavanagh Kevin
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of pharmacy and pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.745
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 2042-7158
pISSN - 0022-3573
DOI - 10.1211/0022357022359
Subject(s) - ergosterol , amphotericin b , candida albicans , doxorubicin , yeast , corpus albicans , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , pharmacology , antifungal , chemotherapy , biochemistry , genetics
Cancer patients experience a high incidence of fungal infections due to their immuno‐suppressed condition. This work has investigated the interaction of an anti‐neoplastic agent, adriamycin (doxorubicin), with the yeast Candida albicans and examined whether this drug altered the susceptibility of the yeast to amphotericin B – an anti‐fungal agent used for the treatment of systemic fungal infections in cancer patients. Exposure to adriamycin for 24 h increased the growth of C. albicans and increased the tolerance to amphotericin B by a small, but statistically significant, extent. Growth in adriamycin‐supplemented medium suppressed the respiration rate of C. albicans , which resulted in a decrease in the ergosterol content of the fungal cell membrane. The tolerance to amphotericin B was lost after exposure to adriamycin for 48 h, which coincided with a restoration in the respiration rate and the ergosterol content of the fungal cell membrane. This work demonstrated that short‐term exposure (24 h) to adriamycin increased the tolerance of C. albicans for amphotericin B, which may be mediated by a decrease in the ergosterol content as a result of an adriamycin‐induced disruption of oxidative phosphorylation.