Fungicidal and Cytotoxic Activity of a Capsicum chinense Defensin Expressed by Endothelial Cells

Abstract

Plant defensins are antimicrobial peptides that exhibit mainly antifungal activity against a broad range of plant fungal pathogens. However, their actions against Candida albicans have not been extensively studied. The mRNA for gamma-thionin, a defensin from Capsicum chinense, has been expressed in bovine endothelial cells. The conditioned medium of these cells showed antifungal activity on germ tube formation (60-70% of inhibition) and on the viability of C. albicans (70-80% of inhibition). Additionally, C. albicans was not able to penetrate transfected cells. Conditioned medium from these cells also inhibited the viability (80%) of the human tumor cell line, HeLa.

Thionin Thi2.1 from Arabidopsis thaliana expressed in endothelial cells shows antibacterial, antifungal and cytotoxic activity

“…In this study, we detected antifungal activity of CM from EC-Thi2.1 cells against several strains of the mammal pathogenic fungi C. albicans. Similar results were reported to c-thionin from Capsicum chinense expressed by BVE-E6E7 cells against C. albicans (Anaya-López et al 2006b). The antifungal activity of thionin Thi2.1 was independent of C. albicans membrane composition due gcs mutant strains were also sensitive to CM (Fig.…”

“…Mammal cells represent a good alternative to express antimicrobial peptides due to the toxicity or the lack of effect that some antimicrobial peptides show when they are expressed in bacteria or yeast (Rai and Padh 2001). Besides, bovine endothelial cells have been successful to evaluate the antimicrobial activities of plant antimicrobial peptides (Anaya-López et al 2006b;OchoaZarzosa et al 2008).…”

“…However, the effects of thionins on mammal pathogens, such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus or Candida albicans are unknown. Recently, we have reported that the expression of plant antimicrobial peptides in bovine endothelial cells is a useful tool to explore antibacterial, fungicidal and cytotoxic activities against a broad range of mammal pathogens and human tumor cell lines (Anaya-López et al 2006b). …”

Antimicrobial Peptides: Diversity and Perspectives for Their Biomedical Application

“…In the case of plant biotechnology transgenic plants resistant to diseases and pests have been produced through the introduction of AMPs genes from other plant species or even human defensins have been expressed in experimental models, and a better response to the attack of fungal pathogens has been observed (Aerts et al, 2007). Moreover, through biotechnological approaches, plant defensins and thionins have been expressed in mammalian cells in our working group; which showed activity against bacteria, fungi and tumor cells (Anaya-López et al, 2006;Loeza-Ángeles et al, 2008). Among the studies that have been done with transgenic animals, those that demonstrate the protection conferred by human lactoferrin expressed in bovine mammary gland, conveying a delayed onset of clinical signs and inflammation caused by intramammary bacteria, stand out (Simojoki et al, 2010).…”

PvD1 defensin, a plant antimicrobial peptide with inhibitory activity against Leishmania amazonensis

“…However, some bacteria, particularly Grampositive species, are also inhibited, although the activity is less pronounced than that against fungi. The growth of several fungal species, including several filamentous fungi and yeast cells, was inhibited when incubated with these peptides [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Despite the broad inhibitory activity that plant defensins exhibit against different micro-organisms, scientists know little about their activity against protozoa.…”