Background: Anticancer/antineoplastic agents could be a good resource for the discovery of novel antifungal agents and targets since human beings share a common eukaryotic heritage with fungi. Methods: Thirty commonly prescribed anticancer drugs belonging to 12 different classes were analyzed for their effects on the growth of Candida albicans. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were obtained using standard CLSI-M27 A2 methodology, and minimal fungicidal concentrations (MFCs) were determined via the agar plate method. Results: Anticancer agents inhibited the growth of C. albicans in a concentration-dependent manner. Nine drugs from different classes were effective at low concentrations (≤50 µg·ml^–1), while 15 anticancer drugs exhibited MICs of 100 µg·ml^–1. Sixteen out of 30 drugs exerted fungicidal activity in the range of 400–800 µg·ml^–1. Conclusions: MICs and MFCs for 30 anticancer drugs were established against C. albicans. Our study highlighted the anti-Candida potential of these drugs, which may give insights to unexplored targets for antifungal chemotherapy.

The ethnobotanical evaluation of plant based chemicals has proven themselves greatly in last few decades. Plants have been a rich source of therapeutic agents and form the basis of traditional medicine system. On the basis of this, in vitro antifungal activities of extracts of Catharanthus roseus, Nerium oleander and Taberenemontana divaricata leaf extracts were evaluated in the present study by 96 well microtiter plate assays using human fungal pathogen Candida albicans ATCC90028 strain. The activity was measured by spectophotometric methods to determine the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC). The Minimum Fungicidal Concentrations (MFC) for the extracts was also determined by a plate assay. The distilled water extract, petroleum ether extract, methanolic extract, ethyl acetate extract and sequential distilled water leaf extracts of all the plants showed potential activity against C. albicans ATCC 90028. The study ascertains the value of Apocynaceae plants, which could be of considerable interest to the development of new safer antifungals.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/icpj.v2i7.15155 International Current Pharmaceutical Journal, June 2013, 2(7): 122-125

Candida infections are very common in cancer patients and it is a common practice to prescribe antifungal antibiotics along with anticancer drugs. Yeast to hyphal form switching is considered to be important in invasive candidiasis. Targeting morphogenetic switching may be useful against invasive candidiasis. In this study, we report the antimorphogenetic properties of thirty cancer drugs.

BackgroundAsaronaldehyde (2, 4, 5-trimethoxybeznaldehyde) is an active component of Acorus gramineus rhizome. This study aims to evaluate the anti-Candida efficacy of asaronaldehyde and its three structural isomers, namely, 2, 3, 4-trimethoxybenzaldehyde, 3, 4, 5-trimethoxybenzaldehyde, and 2, 4, 6- trimethoxybenzaldehyde.MethodsSusceptibility testing of test compounds was carried out using standard methodology (M27-A2) as per clinical and laboratory standards institute guidelines. Minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) was determined as the lowest concentration of drug killing 99.9% of Candida cells. The effect on sterol profile was evaluated using the ergosterol quantitation method. Effects on morphogenesis, adhesion and biofilm formation in C. albicans were studied using germ-tube, adherence and biofilm formation assays respectively. Cytotoxicity of test compounds to human RBCs was determined by hemolysis assay.Results2, 4, 6-Trimethoxybenzaldehyde exhibited significant anti-Candida activity (P = 0.0412). Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) were established as 0.25 and 0.5 mg/mL, respectively. All of the test compounds showed significant inhibition of hyphal form transition in yeast at MIC/2 and MIC/4 values. 3, 4, 5-Trimethoxybenzaldehyde and 2, 4, 6-trimethoxybenzaldehyde inhibited adhesion and biofilms. A hemolytic assay of these compounds revealed that they were non-toxic at MIC values. Asaronaldehyde reduced sterol content.ConclusionAsaronaldehyde and 2, 4, 6-trimethoxybenzaldehyde showed anti-Candida efficacy.