Inhibitory effect of extract of Coptidis Rhizoma on invasion of Candida albicans hyphae in vitro / 中国中药杂志

The aim of this paper was to investigate the inhibitory effect of extract of Coptidis Rhizoma(ECR) on invasion of Candida albicans hyphae in vitro.XTT reduction method was used to evaluate the metabolic activity of C.albicans.The colony edge growth of C.albicans was observed by solid medium.The growth of C.albicans hyphae was determined on semi-solid medium.The morphology and viability changes of C.albicans hyphae were assessed by scanning electron microscope and fluorescence microscope.qRT-PCR method was used to detect the ALS3 and SSA1 expression of C.albicans invasin genes.The results showed that the metabolic viability by XTT method detected that the activity of C.albicans was gradually decreased under the intervention of 64,128 and 256 mg·L-1 of ECR respectively.128,256 mg·L-1 of ECR significantly inhibited colony folds and wrinkles on solid medium and the hyphal invasion in semi-solid medium.Scanning electron microscopy and fluorescence microscopy showed that 128,256 mg·L-1 of ECR could inhibit the formation of C.albicans hyphae.qRT-PCR results showed that the expression of invasin gene ALS3 and SSA1 was down-regulated,and especially 256 mg·L-1 of ECR could down-regulate the two genes expression by 4.8,1.68 times respectively.This study showed that ECR can affect the invasiveness of C.albicans by inhibiting the growth of hyphae and the expression of invasin.

Therapeutic potential of n-butanol extract of Pulsatilla decoction in a murine model of ulcerative colitis induced by DSS combined with Candida albicans colonization / 中国中药杂志

To investigate the mechanism of n-butanol extract of Pulsatilla decoction (BAEB) against murine ulcerative colitis (UC) model induced by DSS combined with Candida albicans (CA) colonization, mice were randomly divided into normal control group, DSS group, DSS+CA group, BAEB high, medium and low dose group, and positive drug Mesalazine group. The general condition of mice was observed, fungal loads of murine intestinal contents were detected by plate method, colonic pathological change of mice was examined by HE staining. ASCA in serum and IL-6, IL-8, IL-1β, HBD-2, HBD-3 in colonic mucosa were detected by ELISA. The results showed that, compared with DSS group, the general condition and ASCA in serum had no obvious change for DSS+CA group, but the fungal loads in intestinal contents, the colonic pathological damage, and the levels of IL-6, IL-8, IL-1β, HBD-2, HBD-3 in colonic mucosa were greater than that of DSS group. High dose of BAEB group and Mesalazine group could improve the colonic pathology, decrease IL-6, IL-8, IL-1β, HBD-2, HBD-3 expression level. In conclusion, BAEB could effectively improve the UC symptoms in mice induced by DSS combined with CA colonization, and inhibit the inflammatory factors such as IL-6, imply that BAEB is of important value for the treatment of intestinal fungal-related colitis.

Butyl alcohol extract of Baitouweng decoction inhibits Candida albicans cell membrane / 中国中药杂志

To study the inhibitory effect of butyl alcohol extract of Baitouweng decoction(BAEB) on Candida albicans cell membrane. The effects of BAEB on the activity of C. albicans were observed by Spot assay. The changes of intracellular osmotic pressure of C. albicans after BAEB intervention were detected by microtiter plate reader. The effect of BAEB on cell membrane permeability of C. albicans were observed by fluorescence microscopy. The content of ergosterol in C. albicans cell membrane was detected by high performance liquid chromatography, and the expression of ergosterol biosynthesis related genes in cell membrane was detected by qRT-PCR. The results showed that the activity of C. albicans was significantly decreased in 256, 512 and 1 024 mg•L⁻¹ BAEB group. The intracellular glycerol content of C. albicans was significantly increased in 512 and 1 024 mg•L⁻¹ BAEB group(P<0.05). The gene HOG1 associated with intracellular osmotic pressure of C. albicans was down-regulated by 9.1, 9.3 and 5.5 times, respectively. C. albicans with red fluorescent were increased significantly in 512 and 1 024 mg•L⁻¹ BAEB group. The peak area of ergosterol in the 1 024 mg•L⁻¹ BAEB group was 35.884 95, with a significant difference(P<0.05); ERG1, ERG2, ERG3, ERG4, ERG5, ERG6, ERG10, ERG11, ERG13, ERG24, ERG25, ERG251, ERG26 and UPC2 were down-regulated by 6.58, 4.89, 4.15, 9.24,3.41, 9.84, 3.08, 7.50, 5.53, 5.90, 2.45, 3.25,1.98 and 10.07 times respectively in 1 024 mg•L⁻¹ BAEB group. The study indicated that BAEB could inhibit ergosterol and its biosynthesis related genes expression in the cell membrane and inhibit the activity of C. albicans.

Sodium houttuyfonate inhibits virulence related motility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa / 中国中药杂志

Sodium houttuyfonate (SH) is a derivative of effective component of a Chinese material medica, Houttuynia cordata, which is applied in anti-infection of microorganism. But, the antimicrobial mechanisms of SH still remain unclear. Here, we firstly discovered that SH effectively inhibits the three types of virulence related motility of.Pseudomonas aeruginosa, i.e., swimming, twitching and swarming. The plate assay results showed that the inhibitory action of SH against swimming and twitching in 24 h and swarming in 48 h is dose-dependent; and bacteria nearly lost all of the motile activities under the concentration of 1 x minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) (512 mg x L(-1) same as azithromycin positive group (1 x MIC, 16 mg x L(-1)). Furthermore, we found that the expression of structural gene flgB and pilG is down-regulated by SH, which implies that inhibitory mechanism of SH against motility of P. aeruginosa may be due to the inhibition of flagella and pili bioformation of P. aeruginosa by SR Therefore, our presented results firstly demonstrate that SH effectively inhibits the motility activities of P. aeruginosa, and suggest that SH could be a promising antipseudomonas agents in clinic.