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Journal of Medical Microbiology logo Journal of Medical Microbiology

Volume 73, Issue 2

Antifungal activity and potential mechanism of action of Huangqin decoction against Open Access

Abstract

is a major causative agent of superficial dermatomycoses such as onychomycosis and tinea pedis. Huangqin decoction (HQD), as a classical traditional Chinese medicine formula, was found to inhibit the growth of common clinical dermatophytes such as in our previous drug susceptibility experiments.

The antifungal activity and potential mechanism of HQD against have not yet been investigated.

The aim of this study was to investigate the antifungal activity and explore the potential mechanism of action of HQD against .

The present study was performed to evaluate the antifungal activity of HQD against by determination of minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs), minimal fungicidal concentrations (MFCs), mycelial growth, biomass, spore germination and structural damage, and explore its preliminary anti-dermatophyte mechanisms by sorbitol and ergosterol assay, HPLC-based ergosterol test, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and mitochondrial enzyme activity test.

HQD was able to inhibit the growth of significantly, with an MIC of 3.125 mg ml and an MFC of 12.5 mg ml. It also significantly inhibited the hyphal growth, conidia germination and biomass growth of in a dose-dependent manner, and induced structural damage in different degrees for cells. HQD showed no effect on cell wall integrity, but was able to damage the cell membrane of by interfering with ergosterol biosynthesis, involving the reduction of squalene epoxidase (SE) and sterol 14α-demethylase P450 (CYP51) activities, and also affect the malate dehydrogenase (MDH), succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) and ATPase activities of mitochondria.

These results revealed that HQD had significant anti-dermatophyte activity, which was associated with destroying the cell membrane and affecting the enzyme activities of mitochondria.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): antifungal activity , cell membrane , Huangqin decoction , mechanism of action , mitochondria and Trichophyton rubrum
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • the Science and technology plan project of Health Commission of Jiangxi Province (Award 202310011)
    • Principle Award Recipient: ChengyingShen
  • the Science and technology plan project of Jiangxi Province administration of traditional Chinese medicine (Award 2023B1311)
    • Principle Award Recipient: ChengyingShen
  • Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (Award 20232BAB216124)
    • Principle Award Recipient: ChengyingShen
© 2024 The Authors
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
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2024-02-13
2025-05-19
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Antifungal activity and potential mechanism of action of Huangqin decoction against Trichophyton rubrum
J. Med. Microbiol. 73, 001805 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.001805
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001805
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