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Preliminary study of activity of the thioredoxin inhibitor pleurotin against Trichophyton mentagrophytes : a novel anti‐dermatophyte possibility
Author(s) -
Berdicevsky Israela,
Kaufman Gil,
Newman David J.,
Horwitz Benjamin A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
mycoses
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.13
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1439-0507
pISSN - 0933-7407
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0507.2008.01620.x
Subject(s) - dermatophyte , trichophyton , thioredoxin , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , candida albicans , trichophyton rubrum , gene , antifungal , biochemistry
Summary Dermatophyte infections, while not life‐threatening, are very common, and there is great interest in developing new antifungal agents. Transcriptional profiling of Trichophyton on keratin has identified some antioxidant genes as induced on this host substrate, including a thioredoxin gene TmTRX1 . If thioredoxin is a virulence factor, or necessary for the growth on keratin, thioredoxin inhibitors should act as antifungals. As a first evaluation of this hypothesis, we have tested the activity of a thioredoxin‐inhibitory natural product, pleurotin, against a clinical isolate of each of two fungal pathogens: the dermatophyte T. mentagrophytes and Candida albicans . Pleurotin inhibited the growth of the dermatophyte in vitro and in an ex vivo skin model, but had no effect on Candida . It may be possible to develop and optimise thioredoxin inhibitors, some of which are already under study in cancer chemotherapy, as antifungals.