In vitro antifungal activity of DNA topoisomerase inhibitors

Abstract

In this paper we report the results of the study of the in vitro effect of eight anticancer DNA topoisomerase inhibitors on the growth of Aspergillus fumigatus, A. niger, Candida glabrata and Cryptococcus neoformans. Only one compound, idarubicin, displayed promising antifungal activity against A. niger, C. glabrata and C. neoformans with MIC₅₀ values varying between 3.6 and 14.2 μM (1.8–7.1 μg/ml). Three other compounds, aclarubicin, doxorubicin and mitoxantrone, showed some antifungal activity against C. glabrata and C. neoformans with MIC₅₀ values in the mid micromolar range. The data of this study indicate that selected DNA topoisomerase inhibitors are a promising class of compounds for the development of new antifungal agents.

Keywords:

• antifungal activities
• DNA topoisomerase inhibitors
• Aspergillus
• Candida
• Cryptococcus

Acknowledgements

We thank Xia Wang for help with reading the 96-well plates on the BioTek ELx808 absorbance microplate reader.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

This paper was first published online on Early Online on 22 September 2011.