Sensitization of Candida albicans to terbinafine by berberine and berberrubine.

Candida albicans (C. albicans) is an opportunistic fungal pathogen, particularly observed in immunocompromised patients. C. albicans accounts for 50-70% of cases of invasive candidiasis in the majority of clinical settings. Terbinafine, an allylamine antifungal drug, has been used to treat fungal infections previously. It has fungistatic activity against C. albicans. Traditional Chinese medicines can be used as complementary medicines to conventional drugs to treat a variety of ailments and diseases. Berberine is a quaternary alkaloid isolated from the traditional Chinese herb, Coptidis Rhizoma, while berberrubine is isolated from the medicinal plant Berberis vulgaris, but is also readily derived from berberine by pyrolysis. The present study demonstrates the possible complementary use of berberine and berberrubine with terbinafine against C. albicans. The experimental findings assume that the potential application of these alkaloids together with reduced dosage of the standard drug would enhance the resulting antifungal potency.

[1]  J. H. Lee,et al.  Antimicrobial activity of 9-O-acyl- and 9-O-alkylberberrubine derivatives. , 2002, Planta medica.

[2]  L. Wiseman,et al.  Terbinafine. An update of its use in superficial mycoses. , 1999, Drugs.

[3]  T. Aburjai,et al.  Screening of antibiotic resistant inhibitors from local plant materials against two different strains of Staphylococcus aureus. , 2002, Journal of ethnopharmacology.

[4]  M. Ueki,et al.  Antibacterial activity and structure-activity relationships of berberine analogs , 1996 .

[5]  P. Nenoff,et al.  Mycology – an update Part 2: Dermatomycoses: Clinical picture and diagnostics , 2014, Journal der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft = Journal of the German Society of Dermatology : JDDG.

[6]  D. Mitra,et al.  Synthesis of 9-substituted derivatives of berberine as anti-HIV agents. , 2011, European journal of medicinal chemistry.

[7]  A. Gupta.  Butenafine: an update of its use in superficial mycoses. , 2002, Skin therapy letter.

[8]  Ki Duk Park,et al.  Synthesis of 13-(substituted benzyl) berberine and berberrubine derivatives as antifungal agents. , 2006, Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry letters.

[9]  B. Posteraro,et al.  Antifungal drug resistance among Candida species: mechanisms and clinical impact , 2015, Mycoses.

[10]  R. Gambari,et al.  Sensitization of Hep3B hepatoma Cells to Cisplatin and Doxorubicin by Corilagin , 2014, Phytotherapy research : PTR.

[11]  X. Qin,et al.  Potent In Vitro Synergism of Fluconazole and Berberine Chloride against Clinical Isolates of Candida albicans Resistant to Fluconazole , 2006, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

[12]  E. Mylonakis,et al.  Fluconazole Assists Berberine To Kill Fluconazole-Resistant Candida albicans , 2013, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

[13]  Xuelin Han,et al.  Occurrence of oral Candida colonization and its risk factors among patients with malignancies in China , 2015, Clinical Oral Investigations.

[14]  C. Nakamura,et al.  In vitro antifungal activity of the berberine and its synergism with fluconazole , 2010, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek.

[15]  R. Gaynes,et al.  Nosocomial infections in coronary care units in the United States. National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System. , 1998, The American journal of cardiology.

[16]  C. Lacroix,et al.  Candida species isolated from the vaginal mucosa of HIV-infected women in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. , 2011, The Brazilian journal of infectious diseases : an official publication of the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases.

[17]  M. Arendrup.  Epidemiology of invasive candidiasis , 2010, Current opinion in critical care.

[18]  F. Devaux,et al.  Molecular Mechanisms of Action of Herbal Antifungal Alkaloid Berberine, in Candida albicans , 2014, PloS one.

[19]  Christine D Wu,et al.  In vitro synergism between berberine and miconazole against planktonic and biofilm Candida cultures. , 2011, Archives of oral biology.

[20]  Yuqiang Zheng,et al.  In vitro damage of Candida albicans biofilms by chitosan , 2014, Experimental and therapeutic medicine.

[21]  J. Camadro,et al.  farnesol-induced apoptosis in Candida albicans , 2016 .

[22]  S. H. Marques-da-Silva,et al.  Oral carriage of Candida species in HIV-infected patients during highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in Belém, Brazil. , 2015, Oral surgery, oral medicine, oral pathology and oral radiology.

[23]  S. Tsao,et al.  Berberine and Coptidis rhizoma as novel antineoplastic agents: a review of traditional use and biomedical investigations. , 2009, Journal of ethnopharmacology.

[24]  R. Gambari,et al.  Non-toxic agarose/gelatin-based microencapsulation system containing gallic acid for antifungal application. , 2015, International journal of molecular medicine.

[25]  S. Mandal,et al.  Synergistic anti-Staphylococcus aureus activity of amoxicillin in combination with Emblica officinalis and Nymphae odorata extracts. , 2010 .

[26]  C. McArthur,et al.  Multi-drug resistant oral Candida species isolated from HIV-positive patients in South Africa and Cameroon. , 2014, Diagnostic microbiology and infectious disease.

[27]  Bo-chu Wang,et al.  The synergistic activity of antibiotics combined with eight traditional Chinese medicines against two different strains of Staphylococcus aureus. , 2005, Colloids and surfaces. B, Biointerfaces.

[28]  U. Sonnenborn,et al.  Yeasts in the gut: from commensals to infectious agents. , 2009, Deutsches Arzteblatt international.

[29]  A. Chan,et al.  Development of 8-benzyloxy-substituted quinoline ethers and evaluation of their antimicrobial activities , 2014, Medicinal Chemistry Research.

[30]  RUIXIN LIU,et al.  Bitterness intensity prediction of berberine hydrochloride using an electronic tongue and a GA-BP neural network , 2014, Experimental and therapeutic medicine.

[31]  S. Mandal,et al.  Enhancing chloramphenicol and trimethoprim in vitro activity by Ocimum sanctum Linn. (Lamiaceae) leaf extract against Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi. , 2012, Asian Pacific journal of tropical medicine.

[32]  Clinical,et al.  Reference method for broth dilution antifungal susceptibility testing of yeasts : Approved standard , 2008 .

[33]  T. Mizukami,et al.  Inhibitors of DNA topoisomerase I and II isolated from the Coptis rhizomes. , 1995, Planta medica.