TY - JOUR

T1 - Antifungal application of nonantifungal drugs

AU - Stylianou, Marios

AU - Kulesskiy, Evgeny

AU - Lopes, José Pedro

AU - Granlund, Margareta

AU - Wennerberg, Krister

AU - Urban, Constantin F

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - Candida species are the cause of 60% of all mycoses in immunosuppressed individuals, leading to ∼150,000 deaths annually due to systemic infections, whereas the current antifungal therapies either have toxic side effects or are insufficiently efficient. We performed a screening of two compound libraries, the Enzo and the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) oncology collection library, for anti-Candida activity based on the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) guidelines. From a total of 844 drugs, 26 agents showed activity against Candida albicans. Of those, 12 were standard antifungal drugs (SADs) and 7 were off-target drugs previously reported to be active against Candida spp. The remaining 7 off-target drugs, amonafide, tosedostat, megestrol acetate, melengestrol acetate, stanozolol, trifluperidol, and haloperidol, were identified with this screen. The anti-Candida activities of the new agents were investigated by three individual assays using optical density, ATP levels, and microscopy. The antifungal activities of these drugs were comparable to those of the SADs found in the screen. The aminopeptidase inhibitor tosedostat, which is currently in a clinical trial phase for anticancer therapy, displayed a broad antifungal activity against different Candida spp., including Candida glabrata. Thus, this screen reveals agents that were previously unknown to be anti-Candida agents, which allows for the design of novel therapies against invasive candidiasis.

AB - Candida species are the cause of 60% of all mycoses in immunosuppressed individuals, leading to ∼150,000 deaths annually due to systemic infections, whereas the current antifungal therapies either have toxic side effects or are insufficiently efficient. We performed a screening of two compound libraries, the Enzo and the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) oncology collection library, for anti-Candida activity based on the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) guidelines. From a total of 844 drugs, 26 agents showed activity against Candida albicans. Of those, 12 were standard antifungal drugs (SADs) and 7 were off-target drugs previously reported to be active against Candida spp. The remaining 7 off-target drugs, amonafide, tosedostat, megestrol acetate, melengestrol acetate, stanozolol, trifluperidol, and haloperidol, were identified with this screen. The anti-Candida activities of the new agents were investigated by three individual assays using optical density, ATP levels, and microscopy. The antifungal activities of these drugs were comparable to those of the SADs found in the screen. The aminopeptidase inhibitor tosedostat, which is currently in a clinical trial phase for anticancer therapy, displayed a broad antifungal activity against different Candida spp., including Candida glabrata. Thus, this screen reveals agents that were previously unknown to be anti-Candida agents, which allows for the design of novel therapies against invasive candidiasis.

KW - Antifungal Agents/chemistry

KW - Antineoplastic Agents/chemistry

KW - Candida/drug effects

KW - Clinical Trials as Topic

KW - Drug Discovery

KW - Drug Repositioning

KW - Drug Resistance, Fungal

KW - Glycine/analogs & derivatives

KW - High-Throughput Screening Assays

KW - Humans

KW - Hydroxamic Acids/chemistry

KW - Microbial Sensitivity Tests

KW - Small Molecule Libraries/chemistry

U2 - 10.1128/AAC.01087-13

DO - 10.1128/AAC.01087-13

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 24277040

VL - 58

SP - 1055

EP - 1062

JO - Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy

JF - Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy

SN - 0066-4804

IS - 2

ER -