Evaluation of Anti-Biofilm Capability of Cordycepin Against Candida albicans

Yu Wang; Zejun Pei; Zaixiang Lou; Hongxin Wang

doi:10.2147/IDR.S285690

Evaluation of Anti-Biofilm Capability of Cordycepin Against Candida albicans

Infect Drug Resist. 2021 Feb 5:14:435-448. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S285690. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Yu Wang^#^{1

2}, Zejun Pei^#^{1

2}, Zaixiang Lou², Hongxin Wang²

Affiliations

¹ The Affiliated Wuxi No. 2 People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, 214122, People's Republic of China.
² School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Introduction: The opportunistic pathogen Candida albicans can form biofilms, resulting in drug resistance with great risk to medical treatment.

Methodology: We investigated the ability of C. albicans to form biofilms on different materials, as well as the inhibitory and eradicating effects of cordycepin on biofilm. The action mechanism of cordycepin against biofilm was studied by crystal violet staining, XTT [2, 3-bis (2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium-5-carboxanilide] reduction method, phenol-sulfuric acid method, cellular superficial hydrophobicity (CSH) assay, and confocal laser scanning microscope observation. We also evaluated the acute toxicity of cordycepin in vivo.

Results: The results showed facile formation of biofilms by C. albicans on polypropylene. The 50% minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC₅₀) of cordycepin was 0.062 mg/mL. A concentration of 0.125 mg/mL significantly decreased biofilm formation, metabolic activity, secretion of extracellular polysaccharides, and relative CSH. Cordycepin could inhibit biofilm formation at low concentration without affecting fungal growth. In addition, cordycepin effectively eradicated 59.14% of mature biofilms of C. albicans at a concentration of 0.5 mg/mL. For acute toxicity, the LD₅₀ (50% of lethal dose) of cordycepin was determined as higher than 500 mg/kg for mice.

Conclusion: The results of this study show that cordycepin significantly inhibited and eradicated biofilms by decreasing metabolic activity, the ratio of living cells, the hydrophobicity, and damaging the extracellular polysaccharides of biofilm. These findings should facilitate more effective application of cordycepin and suggest a new direction for the treatment of fungal infections.

Keywords: Candida albicans; biofilm; cordycepin; eradication; inhibition.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Primary Research and Developement Plan Programs of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. 2019633); the Science, Education and Health Engineering-Medical Innovation Team Project of Wu’xi (Grant No. CXTD007).