Vet World   Vol.16   June-2023  Article-14

A pilot study on ultrashort peptide with fluconazole: A promising novel anticandidal combination

Background and Aim: Human infections caused by Candida albicans are common and range in severity from relatively treatable skin and mucosal conditions to systemic, fatal invasive candidiasis. The treatment of fungal infections is challenged by major obstacles, including the scarcity of effective therapeutic options, the toxicity of available medications, and the escalating antifungal resistance. Hence, there exists an urgent need to develop new classes of antimicrobial agents. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of KW-23 peptide against standard and resistant strains of C. albicans alone and in combination with fluconazole.

Materials and Methods: A conjugated ultrashort antimicrobial peptide (KW-23) was designed and synthesized. KW-23 was challenged against standard and multidrug-resistant C. albicans alone and in combination with fluconazole using standard antimicrobial and checkerboard assays. The toxicity of the peptide was examined using hemolytic assays.

Results: KW-23 positively affected the standard and resistant Candidal strains (at 5 and 15 µg/mL respectively), exhibiting potent synergistic antimicrobial activity against the standard strain when combined with fluconazole. The effect of the combination was additive against the resistant strain (0.6 µg/mL). Furthermore, the peptide exhibited negligible toxicity on human erythrocytes.

Conclusion: KW-23 and its combination with fluconazole could be a promising candidate for developing anticandidal agents. Keywords: Candida albicans, drug combinations, fluconazole, synergism, ultrashort peptide.

Keywords: Candida albicans, drug combinations, fluconazole, synergism, ultrashort peptide.

How to cite this article: Darwish RM and Salama AH (2023) A pilot study on ultrashort peptide with fluconazole: A promising novel anticandidal combination, Veterinary World, 16(6): 1284-1288.

Received: 14-02-2023  Accepted: 11-05-2023     Published online: 09-06-2023

Corresponding author: Rula M. Darwish   E-mail: rulamdarwish1@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2023.1284-1288

Copyright: Darwish RM and Salama, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.