Transcriptome sequencing revealed the inhibitory mechanism of ketoconazole on clinical .

BACKGROUND

is a zoonotic disease that can cause dermatophytosis in animals and humans.

OBJECTIVES

In clinical practice, ketoconazole (KTZ) and other imidazole drugs are commonly used to treat infection, but its molecular mechanism is not completely understood. The antifungal mechanism of KTZ needs to be studied in detail.

METHODS

In this study, one strain of fungi was isolated from a canine suffering with clinical dermatosis and confirmed as by morphological observation and sequencing analysis. The clinically isolated was treated with KTZ and transcriptome sequencing was performed to identify differentially expressed genes in exposed to KTZ compared with those unexposed thereto.

RESULTS

At half-inhibitory concentration (½MIC), compared with the control group, 453 genes were significantly up-regulated and 326 genes were significantly down-regulated ( < 0.05). Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis verified the transcriptome results of RNA sequencing. Gene ontology enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis revealed that the 3 pathways of RNA polymerase, steroid biosynthesis, and ribosome biogenesis in eukaryotes are closely related to the antifungal mechanism of KTZ.

CONCLUSIONS

The results indicated that KTZ may change cell membrane permeability, destroy the cell wall, and inhibit mitosis and transcriptional regulation through CYP51, SQL, ERG6, ATM, ABCB1, SC, KER33, RPA1, and RNP genes in the 3 pathways. This study provides a new theoretical basis for the effective control of infection and the effect of KTZ on fungi.