Hypersaline fungi as a source of potentially active metabolites against pathogenic Candida species.

Abstract

Opportunistic and nosocomial human infections by various Candida species are of serious global health concern especially due to the spread of drug resistant strains and lack of treatment options. One of the main problems of bioprospecting for novel antimycotics is the rediscovery of already known molecules. To reduce the chances of such rediscoveries, one option is to search for unique metabolites from microbes of less studied and extreme habitats. Thirty-five fungal strains were isolated from solar salterns and the methanolic extracts of their culture supernatants were tested for the inhibition of human-pathogenic Candida albicans , C. dubliniensis , C. glabrata , C. lusitaniae , C. tropicalis , and two clinical isolates of C. auris . Of the fungi screened, two, viz. Curvularia nodosa and Fusarium cf. foetens , showed significant growth inhibition of all the Candida species. Although the effective molecules were not identified in this preliminary screening, it highlights the importance of bioprospecting fungi from extreme environments which have been neglected in the search for novel antibiotics.