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An Antifungal Benzimidazole Derivative Inhibits Ergosterol Biosynthesis and Reveals Novel Sterols.

ABSTRACT: Fungal infections are a leading cause of morbidity and death for hospitalized patients, mainly because they remain difficult to diagnose and to treat. Diseases range from widespread superficial infections such as vulvovaginal infections to life-threatening systemic candidiasis. For systemic mycoses, only a restricted arsenal of antifungal agents is available. Commonly used classes of antifungal compounds include azoles, polyenes, and echinocandins. Due to emerging resistance to standard therapies, significant side effects, and high costs for several antifungals, there is a need for new antifungals in the clinic. In order to expand the arsenal of compounds with antifungal activity, we previously screened a compound library using a cell-based screening assay. A set of novel benzimidazole derivatives, including (S)-2-(1-aminoisobutyl)-1-(3-chlorobenzyl)benzimidazole (EMC120B12), showed high antifungal activity against several species of pathogenic yeasts, including Candida glabrata and Candida krusei (species that are highly resistant to antifungals). In this study, comparative analysis of EMC120B12 versus fluconazole and nocodazole, using transcriptional profiling and sterol analysis, strongly suggested that EMC120B12 targets Erg11p in the ergosterol biosynthesis pathway and not microtubules, like other benzimidazoles. In addition to the marker sterol 14-methylergosta-8,24(28)-dien-3?,6?-diol, indicating Erg11p inhibition, related sterols that were hitherto unknown accumulated in the cells during EMC120B12 treatment. The novel sterols have a 3?,6?-diol structure. In addition to the identification of novel sterols, this is the first time that a benzimidazole structure has been shown to result in a block of the ergosterol pathway.

SUBMITTER: Keller P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4576113 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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An Antifungal Benzimidazole Derivative Inhibits Ergosterol Biosynthesis and Reveals Novel Sterols.

Keller Petra P Müller Christoph C Engelhardt Isabel I Hiller Ekkehard E Lemuth Karin K Eickhoff Holger H Wiesmüller Karl-Heinz KH Burger-Kentischer Anke A Bracher Franz F Rupp Steffen S

Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy 20150727 10

Fungal infections are a leading cause of morbidity and death for hospitalized patients, mainly because they remain difficult to diagnose and to treat. Diseases range from widespread superficial infections such as vulvovaginal infections to life-threatening systemic candidiasis. For systemic mycoses, only a restricted arsenal of antifungal agents is available. Commonly used classes of antifungal compounds include azoles, polyenes, and echinocandins. Due to emerging resistance to standard therapie ...[more]

PMID: 26248360

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Project description:Fungal infections are a serious health problem in clinics especially in the immune-compromised patient. Disease ranges from widespread superficial infections like vulvovaginal infections to life-threatening systemic candidiasis. Especially for systemic mycoses only a limited arsenal of antifungals is available. The most commonly used classes of antifungal compounds used include azoles, polyenes and echinocandines. Due to emerging resistance to standard therapy and significant side effects and high costs for several antifungals.,there is a medical need for new antifungals in the clinic and general practice. In order to expand the arsenal of compounds with antifungal activities we previously screened a compound library, using a new type of activity-selectivity (AS) assay analysing both the antifungal activity and the compatibility with human cells at the same time. One compound, ((S)-2-(1-aminoisobutyl)-1-(3-chlorobenzyl) benzimidazole (EMC120B12)), showed high antifungal activity against several species of pathogenic yeasts including C. glabrata and C. krusei, species which are highly refractory to antifungals, especially to the commonly used azoles. Here we could show by transcriptional profiling and sterol analysis that the target of this new antifungal compound is the ergosterol pathway. The effects of EMC120B12 on sterol biosynthesis mimic those of fluconazole, strongly indicating that EMC120B12 also targets ERG11 like the azols. But not only the marker sterol 14 methylergosta 8,24(28) dien 3β,6α diol accumulated in C. krusei under EMC120B12 treatment, but also hitherto unknown related sterols. The novel sterols have a 3β,6α diol structure. Furthermore, this is the first time that a benzimidazole structure has been shown to result in a block of the sterol pathway by accumulating marker sterols connected to ERG11 inactivation. In total, three biological replicates were performed. All experiments were performed as dye swaps. Thus, in total 18 arrays have been hybridzed. Hybridization experiments included an untreated reference sample and a sample of cells treated with either ((1S)-1-[1-(3-chlorobenzyl)-1H-benzimidazol-2-yl]-2-methylpropyl-amine) (EMC120B12), Fluconazole or Nocodazole. The array included one technical replicate of each probe.

Project description:Fungi transcriptionally upregulate expression of azole efflux pumps and ergosterol biosynthesis pathway genes when exposed to antifungal agents that target ergosterol biosynthesis. To date, these transcriptional responses have been shown to be dependent on the presence of the azoles and/or depletion of ergosterol. Using an inducible promoter to regulate Neurospora crassa erg11, which encodes the major azole target, sterol 14?-demethylase, we were able to demonstrate that the CDR4 azole efflux pump can be transcriptionally activated by ergosterol biosynthesis inhibition even in the absence of azoles. By analyzing ergosterol deficient mutants, we demonstrate that the transcriptional responses by cdr4 and, unexpectedly, genes encoding ergosterol biosynthesis enzymes (erg genes) that are responsive to azoles, are not dependent on ergosterol depletion. Nonetheless, deletion of erg2, which encodes C-8 sterol isomerase, also induced expression of cdr4. Deletion of erg2 also induced the expression of erg24, the gene encoding C-14 sterol reductase, but not other tested erg genes which were responsive to erg11 inactivation. This indicates that inhibition of specific steps of ergosterol biosynthesis can result in different transcriptional responses, which is further supported by our results obtained using different ergosterol biosynthesis inhibitors. Together with the sterol profiles, these results suggest that the transcriptional responses by cdr4 and erg genes are associated with accumulation of specific sterol intermediate(s). This was further supported by the fact that when the erg2 mutant was treated with ketoconazole, upstream inhibition overrode the effects by downstream inhibition on ergosterol biosynthesis pathway. Even though cdr4 expression is associated with the accumulation of sterol intermediates, intra- and extracellular sterol analysis by HPLC-MS indicated that the transcriptional induction of cdr4 did not result in efflux of the accumulated intermediate(s). This study demonstrates, by detailed genetic and chemical analysis, that transcriptional responses by a major efflux pump and genes of the ergosterol biosynthesis pathway to ergosterol biosynthesis inhibitors can be independent of the presence of the drugs and are linked with the accumulation of ergosterol intermediate(s).

Dataset Information

An Antifungal Benzimidazole Derivative Inhibits Ergosterol Biosynthesis and Reveals Novel Sterols.

Publications

An Antifungal Benzimidazole Derivative Inhibits Ergosterol Biosynthesis and Reveals Novel Sterols.

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