Increasing resistance and changes in the spectrum of Candida infections have generated considerable interest in the development of new antifungal molecules. The use of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) appears to be a promising approach. Frog skin AMPs (such as dermaseptins) have shown antimicrobial activity against several pathogens. In this study, we aimed to test the antimicrobial efficacy of dermaseptin S4 (DS4) against C. albicans. We determined the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of DS4, and investigated the effects of the DS4 at low concentrations on human primary gingival fibroblasts. Additionally, we evaluated the effect of DS4 on C. albicans growth, form changes, and biofilm formation, as well as the expression of certain virulent genes. Our data show that DS4 completely inhibits C. albicans growth at a concentration of 32 μg/mL referring to the MIC of DS4. It should be noted that even with low concentrations (below 16 μg/mL), DS4 still have significant growth reduction of C. albicans, but were not toxic to human gingival fibroblasts. DS4 inhibited the transition from yeast to hyphae, and decreased the biofilm formation by reducing the biofilm mass weight. Surface morphological changes in the yeast cell membrane were observed following exposure to DS4. The gene expression analyses revealed that DS4 significantly decreased the expression of EAP1 and HWP1 genes. Overall results suggest the potential use of DS4 as an antifungal therapy to prevent C. albicans pathogenesis.

耐药性的增加和念珠菌感染谱的变化引起了人们对新型抗真菌分子开发的浓厚兴趣。抗菌肽（AMPs）的使用似乎是一种有前途的方法。青蛙皮肤的AMP（例如皮肤抑素）已显示出对几种病原体的抗菌活性。在这项研究中，我们旨在测试皮肤抑素S4（DS4）对白色念珠菌的抗菌功效。我们确定了DS4的最低抑菌浓度（MIC），并研究了低浓度DS4对人原发性牙龈成纤维细胞的影响。此外，我们评估了DS4对白色念珠菌的影响生长，形式变化和生物膜形成，以及某些毒性基因的表达。我们的数据显示，相对于DS4的MIC，DS4以32μg/ mL的浓度完全抑制白色念珠菌的生长。应该注意的是，即使低浓度（低于16μg/ mL），DS4仍然具有显着的白色念珠菌生长抑制作用。，但对人牙龈成纤维细胞无毒。DS4抑制了从酵母到菌丝的转变，并通过减少生物膜的质量重量减少了生物膜的形成。暴露于DS4后，观察到酵母细胞膜的表面形态变化。基因表达分析表明，DS4显着降低了EAP1和HWP1基因的表达。总体结果表明，将DS4用作抗真菌疗法可预防白色念珠菌的发病机理。