Institute for Research in Molecular Medicine (INFORMM), Universiti Sains Malaysia, USM, Pulau Pinang 11800, Malaysia.
Dental Research & Training Unit, and Oral Cancer Research and Coordinating Centre (OCRCC), Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
J Tradit Complement Med. 2015 Jan 19;6(1):97-104. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcme.2014.11.017. eCollection 2016 Jan.
Candida albicans has become resistant to the commercially available, toxic, and expensive anti-Candida agents that are on the market. These factors force the search for new antifungal agents from natural resources. Cassia spectabilis had been traditionally employed by healers for many generations. The possible mechanisms of the C. spectabilis leaf extract were determined by potassium leakage study and the effect of the extract on the constituents of the cell wall and enzymes as well as the morphological changes on C. albicans cells were studied along with cytotoxicity assays. The cytotoxicity result indicated that the extract is nontoxic as was clearly substantiated by a half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of 59.10 μg/mL. The treated cells (C. spectabilis extract) demonstrated potassium leakage of 1039 parts per million (ppm) compared to Amphotericin B (AmpB)-treated cells with a released potassium value of 1115 ppm. The effects of the extract on the cell wall proteins illustrated that there were three major types of variations in the expression of treated cell wall proteins: the presence of new proteins, the absence of proteins, and the amount of expressed protein. The activities of two enzymes, α-glucosidase and proteinase, were determined to be significantly high, thereby not fully coinciding with the properties of the antifungal reaction triggered by C. spectabilis. The morphology of C. albicans cells treated with the C. spectabilis extract showed that the cells had abnormalities and were damaged or detached within the microcolonies. Our study verifies C. spectabilis leaf extract as an effective anti-C. albicans agent.
白色念珠菌已经对市售的、有毒且昂贵的抗真菌药物产生了耐药性。这些因素迫使人们从自然资源中寻找新的抗真菌药物。决明子已被传统医学家世代用于治疗。通过钾离子漏出研究和提取物对细胞壁成分和酶的影响以及对白色念珠菌细胞形态变化的研究，确定了决明子叶提取物的可能作用机制。同时还进行了细胞毒性测定。细胞毒性结果表明，提取物无毒，这一点通过半最大抑制浓度（IC50）值为 59.10μg/mL 得到了明确证实。与两性霉素 B（AmpB）处理组细胞释放的钾值 1115ppm 相比，处理细胞（决明子提取物）显示出 1039ppm 的钾离子漏出。提取物对细胞壁蛋白的影响表明，处理细胞壁蛋白的表达有三种主要变化类型：存在新的蛋白质、缺失蛋白质和表达蛋白的数量。两种酶，α-葡萄糖苷酶和蛋白酶的活性被确定为显著升高，因此不完全符合决明子触发的抗真菌反应的特性。用决明子提取物处理的白色念珠菌细胞的形态显示，细胞异常，微菌落内的细胞受损或脱落。我们的研究证实了决明子叶提取物是一种有效的抗白色念珠菌药物。
