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Inhibitors of cellular signalling are cytotoxic or block the budded-to-hyphal transition in the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans

¹ Markey Center for Molecular Genetics, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA

² Department of Biological and Physical Sciences, Montana State University Billings, Billings, MT 59101, USA

Correspondence
Douglas I. Johnson
douglas.johnson{at}uvm.edu

Received September 23, 2008
Accepted February 10, 2009

The pathogenic yeast Candida albicans can grow in multiple morphological states including budded, pseudohyphal and true hyphal forms. The ability to interconvert between budded and hyphal forms, herein termed the budded-to-hyphal transition (BHT), is important for C. albicans virulence, and is regulated by multiple environmental and cellular signals. To identify small-molecule inhibitors of known cellular processes that can also block the BHT, a microplate-based morphological assay was used to screen the BIOMOL–Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology (ICCB) Known Bioactives collection from the ICCB-Longwood Screening Facility (Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA). Of 480 molecules tested, 53 were cytotoxic to C. albicans and 16 were able to block the BHT without inhibiting budded growth. These 16 BHT inhibitors affected protein kinases, protein phosphatases, Ras signalling pathways, G protein-coupled receptors, calcium homeostasis, nitric oxide and guanylate cyclase signalling, and apoptosis in mammalian cells. Several of these molecules were also able to inhibit filamentous growth in other Candida species, as well as the pathogenic filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus, suggesting a broad fungal host range for these inhibitory molecules. Results from secondary assays, including hyphal-specific transcription and septin localization analysis, were consistent with the inhibitors affecting known BHT signalling pathways in C. albicans. Therefore, these molecules will not only be invaluable in deciphering the signalling pathways regulating the BHT, but also may serve as starting points for potential new antifungal therapeutics.

Abbreviations: BHT, budded-to-hyphal transition; ETYA, 5,8,11,14-eicosatetraynoic acid; GFP, green fluorescent protein; GPCR, G protein-coupled receptor; ICCB, Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology; NO, nitric oxide; PKA, protein kinase A.

A table of the structures of the BHT inhibitors is available as supplementary material with the online version of this paper.