Publication

Chemical screening identifies filastatin, a small molecule inhibitor of Candida albicans adhesion, morphogenesis, and pathogenesis

Fazly, Ahmed
Jain, Charu
Dehner, Amie C.
Issi, Luca
Lilly, Elizabeth A.
Ali, Akbar
Cao, Hong
Fidel, Paul L. Jr.
Rao, Reeta P.
Kaufman, Paul D.
Embargo Expiration Date
Abstract

Infection by pathogenic fungi, such as Candida albicans, begins with adhesion to host cells or implanted medical devices followed by biofilm formation. By high-throughput phenotypic screening of small molecules, we identified compounds that inhibit adhesion of C. albicans to polystyrene. Our lead candidate compound also inhibits binding of C. albicans to cultured human epithelial cells, the yeast-to-hyphal morphological transition, induction of the hyphal-specific HWP1 promoter, biofilm formation on silicone elastomers, and pathogenesis in a nematode infection model as well as alters fungal morphology in a mouse mucosal infection assay. We term this compound filastatin based on its strong inhibition of filamentation, and we use chemical genetic experiments to show that it acts downstream of multiple signaling pathways. These studies show that high-throughput functional assays targeting fungal adhesion can provide chemical probes for study of multiple aspects of fungal pathogenesis.

Source

Fazly A, Jain C, Dehner AC, Issi L, Lilly EA, Ali A, Cao H, Fidel PL Jr, Rao RP, Kaufman PD. Chemical screening identifies filastatin, a small molecule inhibitor of Candida albicans adhesion, morphogenesis, and pathogenesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Aug 13;110(33):13594-9. doi:10.1073/pnas.1305982110.Link to article on publisher's site

Year of Medical School at Time of Visit
Sponsors
Dates of Travel
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1305982110
PubMed ID
23904484
Other Identifiers
Notes
Funding and Acknowledgements
Corresponding Author
Related Resources
Related Resources
Repository Citation
Rights
Distribution License