In vitro damage of Candida albicans biofilms by chitosan

Abstract

With the increasing usage of indwelling medical devices in clinical practice, the frequency of fungal infections has increased, such as that of Candida albicans (C. albicans). Biofilms, a protected niche for microorganisms, are resistant to a range of current antifungal agents. Chitosan is a polyatomic biopolymer with advantageous biocompatibility, biodegradation, nontoxicity and antibacterial properties. To investigate the inhibitory effect of chitosan on biofilms formed by C. albicans, cell viability, 2,3-bis(2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium-5-caboxanilide reduction, and morphological assays, including fluorescence microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), were employed. As assessed by cell viability assay, chitosan showed significant inhibitory effects on the planktonic cells and the biofilm of C. albicans in a dose-dependent manner. Fluorescence microscopy and SEM assays confirmed that the chitosan-treated group showed delayed C. albicans biofilm formation with defect morphological features, due to the inhibitory effects of the vast majority of fungal cell growth. In conclusion, C. albicans biofilms were compromised by the treatment with chitosan, providing an alternative therapeutic strategy against the fungal biofilms in the medical devices.

Culture media profoundly affect Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis growth, adhesion and biofilm development

“…Coverslips were pretreated with concentrated sulphuric acid, 95% ethanol and foetal bovine serum prior to biofilm formation (Pu et al 2014). Formed biofilms were fixed with 2.5% glutraldehyde for 2 h and serially dehydrated with ethanol.…”

Chitosan-Based Nanomedicine to Fight Genital Candida Infections: Chitosomes

“…Chitosan has been previously confirmed to exhibit high activity against C. albicans and to act on the prevention and disruption of biofilms of C. albicans [25,41,42,43]. It has also been reported that C. albicans biofilms are resistant to commonly used antifungal agents such as fluconazole [44,45]; therefore we expected our chitosan-containing liposomes to act on C. albicans inhibition and express potent antifungal activity.…”

“…In addition to its wide use in conventional dosage forms, chitosan has also been extensively studied as a constituent in nanosystems, such as chitosan-based nanoparticles or nanoemulsions, or as a coating material for liposomes [16,17,18,19,20,21,22]. We were particularly interested in the fact that chitosan exhibits potent antimicrobial, particularly antifungal, effects [23,24,25]. Chitosan was able to disrupt the biofilm integrity and exhibited antifungal activity against Candida species [26] or bactericidal effects against Pseudomonas aeruginosa .…”

Sensitization of Candida albicans to terbinafine by berberine and berberrubine

“…Among the Candida species, Candida albicans (C. albicans) is responsible for 50-70% of cases of invasive candidiasis in the majority of clinical settings (1,2). C. albicans, an opportunistic fungal pathogen that normally inhabits the mucous membranes of the gastrointestinal and female genital tracts (3), is able to attack the immunocompromised patients (4). When the normal microbial barrier is disrupted, C. albicans can invade the intestinal and female genital mucosal barriers and causes candidiasis and candidemia (5,6).…”