Sinefungin, a natural nucleoside analog of S-adenosyl methionine, impairs the pathogenicity of Candida albicans

Candida albicans, an opportunistic fungal human pathogen, is a major threat to the healthcare system due to both infections in immunocompromised individuals and the emergence of antifungal resistance. Fungal infection caused by C. albicans, candidiasis, is a life-threatening condition in immunocompromised patients and the current treatments are mostly restricted to polyenes, azoles, and echinocandins. Use of these antifungals is limited by toxicity, drug-drug interactions, and the emergence of resistance, underscoring the importance of identifying novel therapeutic targets and the need for new treatment approaches. C. albicans can undergo a morphological transition from yeast to hyphae and this transition is central to C. albicans virulence. Here, we determine the impact of sinefungin, a natural nucleoside analog of S-adenosyl methionine, on the virulence of C. albicans strain SC5314 by evaluating treatment effects on the morphological transition, human epithelial cell adhesion, and biofilm formation. Our data indicate that sinefungin impairs pathogenic traits of C. albicans including hyphal lengthening, biofilm formation and the adhesion to the human epithelial cell lines, without adversely affecting human cells, therefore highlighting sinefungin as a potential avenue for therapeutic intervention. We determine that the formation of N6-methyladenosine (m(6)A) is particularly disturbed by sinefungin. More broadly, this study underscores the importance of considering the post-transcriptional control mechanisms of pathogenicity when designing therapeutic solutions to fungal infection.