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Baicalein Acts against Candida albicans by Targeting Eno1 and Inhibiting Glycolysis

Baicalein (BE) is a promising antifungal small-molecule compound with an extended antifungal spectrum, good synergy with fluconazole, and low toxicity, but its target protein and antifungal mechanism remain elusive. In this study, we found that BE can function against Candida albicans by disrupting...

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Autores principales: Li, Liping, Lu, Hui, Zhang, Xuan, Whiteway, Malcolm, Wu, Hao, Tan, Shanlun, Zang, Jianye, Tian, Shujuan, Zhen, Cheng, Meng, Xianlei, Li, Wanqian, Zhang, Dazhi, Zhang, Min, Jiang, Yuanying
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Society for Microbiology 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9430770/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35900099
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.02085-22
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author Li, Liping
Lu, Hui
Zhang, Xuan
Whiteway, Malcolm
Wu, Hao
Tan, Shanlun
Zang, Jianye
Tian, Shujuan
Zhen, Cheng
Meng, Xianlei
Li, Wanqian
Zhang, Dazhi
Zhang, Min
Jiang, Yuanying
author_facet Li, Liping
Lu, Hui
Zhang, Xuan
Whiteway, Malcolm
Wu, Hao
Tan, Shanlun
Zang, Jianye
Tian, Shujuan
Zhen, Cheng
Meng, Xianlei
Li, Wanqian
Zhang, Dazhi
Zhang, Min
Jiang, Yuanying
author_sort Li, Liping
collection PubMed
description Baicalein (BE) is a promising antifungal small-molecule compound with an extended antifungal spectrum, good synergy with fluconazole, and low toxicity, but its target protein and antifungal mechanism remain elusive. In this study, we found that BE can function against Candida albicans by disrupting glycolysis through targeting Eno1 and inhibiting its function. Eno1 acts as a key therapeutic target of the drug, as BE had no antifungal activity against the eno1 null mutant in a Galleria mellonella model of C. albicans infection. To investigate the mechanism of action, we solved the crystal structure of C. albicans Eno1(CaEno1) and then compared the difference between this structure and that of Eno1 from humans. The predicted primary binding site of BE on CaEno1 is between amino acids D261 and W274, with D263, S269, and K273 playing critical roles in the interaction with BE. Both positions S269 and K273 have different residues in the human Eno1 (hEno1). This finding suggests that BE may bind selectively to CaEno1, which would limit the potential for side effects in humans. Our findings demonstrate that Eno1 is a target protein of BE and thus may serve as a novel target for the development of antifungal therapeutics acting through the inhibition of glycolysis. IMPORTANCE Baicalein (BE) is a promising antifungal agent which has been well characterized, but its target protein is still undiscovered. The protein Eno1 plays a crucial role in the survival of Candida albicans. However, there are few antifungal agents which inhibit the functions of Eno1. Here, we found that BE can function against Candida albicans by disrupting glycolysis through targeting Eno1 and inhibiting its function. We further solved the crystal structure of C. albicans Eno1(CaEno1) and predicted that the primary binding site of BE on CaEno1 is between amino acids D261 and W274, with D263, S269, and K273 playing critical roles in the interaction with BE. Our findings will be helpful to get specific small-molecule inhibitors of CaEno1 and open the way for the development of new antifungal therapeutics targeted at inhibiting glycolysis.
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spelling pubmed-94307702022-09-01 Baicalein Acts against Candida albicans by Targeting Eno1 and Inhibiting Glycolysis Li, Liping Lu, Hui Zhang, Xuan Whiteway, Malcolm Wu, Hao Tan, Shanlun Zang, Jianye Tian, Shujuan Zhen, Cheng Meng, Xianlei Li, Wanqian Zhang, Dazhi Zhang, Min Jiang, Yuanying Microbiol Spectr Research Article Baicalein (BE) is a promising antifungal small-molecule compound with an extended antifungal spectrum, good synergy with fluconazole, and low toxicity, but its target protein and antifungal mechanism remain elusive. In this study, we found that BE can function against Candida albicans by disrupting glycolysis through targeting Eno1 and inhibiting its function. Eno1 acts as a key therapeutic target of the drug, as BE had no antifungal activity against the eno1 null mutant in a Galleria mellonella model of C. albicans infection. To investigate the mechanism of action, we solved the crystal structure of C. albicans Eno1(CaEno1) and then compared the difference between this structure and that of Eno1 from humans. The predicted primary binding site of BE on CaEno1 is between amino acids D261 and W274, with D263, S269, and K273 playing critical roles in the interaction with BE. Both positions S269 and K273 have different residues in the human Eno1 (hEno1). This finding suggests that BE may bind selectively to CaEno1, which would limit the potential for side effects in humans. Our findings demonstrate that Eno1 is a target protein of BE and thus may serve as a novel target for the development of antifungal therapeutics acting through the inhibition of glycolysis. IMPORTANCE Baicalein (BE) is a promising antifungal agent which has been well characterized, but its target protein is still undiscovered. The protein Eno1 plays a crucial role in the survival of Candida albicans. However, there are few antifungal agents which inhibit the functions of Eno1. Here, we found that BE can function against Candida albicans by disrupting glycolysis through targeting Eno1 and inhibiting its function. We further solved the crystal structure of C. albicans Eno1(CaEno1) and predicted that the primary binding site of BE on CaEno1 is between amino acids D261 and W274, with D263, S269, and K273 playing critical roles in the interaction with BE. Our findings will be helpful to get specific small-molecule inhibitors of CaEno1 and open the way for the development of new antifungal therapeutics targeted at inhibiting glycolysis. American Society for Microbiology 2022-07-28 /pmc/articles/PMC9430770/ /pubmed/35900099 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.02085-22 Text en Copyright © 2022 Li et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Research Article
Li, Liping
Lu, Hui
Zhang, Xuan
Whiteway, Malcolm
Wu, Hao
Tan, Shanlun
Zang, Jianye
Tian, Shujuan
Zhen, Cheng
Meng, Xianlei
Li, Wanqian
Zhang, Dazhi
Zhang, Min
Jiang, Yuanying
Baicalein Acts against Candida albicans by Targeting Eno1 and Inhibiting Glycolysis
title Baicalein Acts against Candida albicans by Targeting Eno1 and Inhibiting Glycolysis
title_full Baicalein Acts against Candida albicans by Targeting Eno1 and Inhibiting Glycolysis
title_fullStr Baicalein Acts against Candida albicans by Targeting Eno1 and Inhibiting Glycolysis
title_full_unstemmed Baicalein Acts against Candida albicans by Targeting Eno1 and Inhibiting Glycolysis
title_short Baicalein Acts against Candida albicans by Targeting Eno1 and Inhibiting Glycolysis
title_sort baicalein acts against candida albicans by targeting eno1 and inhibiting glycolysis
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9430770/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35900099
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.02085-22
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