Szappanos Henrietta, Szigeti Gyula Péter, Pál Balázs, Rusznák Zoltán, Szucs Géza, Rajnavölgyi Eva, Balla József, Balla György, Nagy Emoke, Leiter Eva, Pócsi István, Hagen Silke, Meyer Vera, Csernoch László
Department of Physiology, RCMM, MHSC, University of Debrecen, 98 Nagyerdei krt., Debrecen 4012, Hungary.
Peptides. 2006 Jul;27(7):1717-25. doi: 10.1016/j.peptides.2006.01.009. Epub 2006 Feb 28.
The antifungal protein AFP is a small, cystein-rich protein secreted by the imperfect ascomycete Aspergillus giganteus. The protein efficiently inhibits the growth of filamentous fungi, including a variety of serious human and plant pathogens mainly of the genera Aspergillus and Fusarium, whereas AFP does not affect the growth of yeast and bacteria. This restricted susceptibility range makes it very attractive for medical or biotechnological use to combat fungal infection and contamination. We, therefore, analyzed whether AFP affects the growth or function of a number of mammalian cells. Here we show that the protein neither provokes any cytotoxic effects on human endothelial cells isolated from the umbilical vein nor activates the immune system. Moreover, potassium currents of neurons and astrocytes do not change in the presence of AFP and neither excitatory processes nor the intracellular calcium homeostasis of cultured skeletal muscle myotubes are affected by AFP. Our data, therefore, suggest that AFP is indeed a promising candidate for the therapeutic or biotechnological use as a potential antifungal agent.
抗真菌蛋白AFP是一种由不完全子囊菌巨大曲霉分泌的、富含半胱氨酸的小蛋白。该蛋白能有效抑制丝状真菌的生长,包括多种主要为曲霉属和镰刀菌属的严重人类和植物病原体,而AFP不影响酵母和细菌的生长。这种有限的敏感范围使其在医学或生物技术应用中对抗真菌感染和污染非常具有吸引力。因此,我们分析了AFP是否会影响多种哺乳动物细胞的生长或功能。在此我们表明,该蛋白既不会对从脐静脉分离的人内皮细胞产生任何细胞毒性作用,也不会激活免疫系统。此外,在AFP存在的情况下,神经元和星形胶质细胞的钾电流不会改变,培养的骨骼肌肌管的兴奋过程和细胞内钙稳态也均不受AFP影响。因此,我们的数据表明,AFP确实是作为潜在抗真菌剂用于治疗或生物技术应用的一个有前景的候选物。