作者
Malitha C Dickwella Widanage, Isha Gautam, Daipayan Sarkar, Frederic Mentink-Vigier, Josh V Vermaas, Thierry Fontaine, Jean-Paul Latgé, Ping Wang, Tuo Wang
发表日期
2023
期刊
bioRxiv
页码范围
2023.08. 09.552708
出版商
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
简介
The insufficient efficacy of existing antifungal drugs and the rise in resistance necessitate the development of new therapeutic agents with novel functional mechanisms. Echinocandins are an important class of antifungals that inhibit β-1,3-glucan biosynthesis to interfere with cell wall structure and function. However, their efficacy is limited by the fungistatic activity against Aspergillus species and the trailing effect during clinical application. Here, we describe how echinocandins remodel the supramolecular assembly of carbohydrate polymers in the fungal cell wall in an unexpected manner, possibly resulting in a subsequent inhibition of the activity of these drugs. Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) analysis of intact cells from the human pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus showed that the loss of β-1,3-glucan and the increase of chitin content led to a decrease in cell wall mobility and water-permeability, thus enhancing resistance to environmental stresses. Chitosan and α-1,3-glucan were found to be important buffering molecules whose physical association with chitin maintained the wall integrity. These new findings revealed the difficult-to-understand structural principles governing fungal pathogens′ response to echinocandins and opened new avenues for designing novel antifungal agents with improved efficacy.
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