Abstract
Trichoderma rubrum (T. rubrum) is one of the important pathogens because it is the cause of most dermatomycosis. The treatment of Trichophyton rubrum infection is time-consuming and very expensive; it is easy for the infections to reoccur, leading to therapeutic failures, persistence, and chronic infection. These issues have inspired researchers to study natural alternative therapies instead. Cnidium monnieri (L.), as a kind of traditional Chinese medicine, has a variety of pharmacological activities and a wide range of applications, so it has a high potential for researching and economic value. We detected the effect of aqueous extract of C. monnieri (L.) on the activity of T. rubrum by Cell Count Kit-8 assay (CCK-8), and we found that 128 and 256 μg/ml of aqueous extracts of C. monnieri (L.) co-cultured with T. rubrum for 24 h showed the inhibitory effect on T. rubrum. The results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) confirmed that aqueous extract of C. monnieri (L.) damaged the T. rubrum. At the same time, mass spectrometry screening with T. rubrum before and after the treatment of 256 μg/ml of aqueous extracts of C. monnieri (L.) showed that 966 differentially expressed proteins were detected, including 524 upregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 442 downregulated DEGs. The most significantly downregulated protein was chitin synthase (CHS); and the results of qRT-PCR and Western blotting demonstrated that the expression level of CHS was downregulated in the 256 μg/ml group compared with the control group. The study showed that the aqueous extract of C. monnieri (L.) could destroy the morphology of mycelia and the internal structure of T. rubrum, and it could inhibit the growth of T. rubrum. The antifungal effect of aqueous extract of C. monnieri (L.) may be related to the downregulation of the expression of CHS in T. rubrum, and CHS may be one of the potential targets of its antifungal mechanism. We concluded that aqueous extract from C. monnieri (L.) may be a potential candidate for antifungal agents.
Highlights
Dermatomycosis is a highly prevalent superficial fungal infection that affects the skin, nails, and hair and is estimated to affect 20–25% of the adult population globally (Seebacher et al, 2008; Zhan and Liu, 2017)
The whole process of PCR amplification was automatically completed by machine (ABI 7500 Real Time PCR System, ABI, Foster City, CA, United States)
Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were performed on the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with significant difference (Figures 5, 6)
Summary
Dermatomycosis is a highly prevalent superficial fungal infection that affects the skin, nails, and hair and is estimated to affect 20–25% of the adult population globally (Seebacher et al, 2008; Zhan and Liu, 2017). It has been observed in different parts of the world. Superficial mycosis generally has mild clinical symptoms and generally affects the quality of life. The elderly and those with chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus (Elewski and Tosti, 2015) and hypoimmune patients have a higher rate of incidence for this disease, and the clinical symptoms may be more serious and even life-threatening (Rouzaud et al, 2015). The causes of unsuccessful treatment include the susceptibility of the patients, the growth patterns of the drug-resistant fungus, the presence of dormant fungal spores in the affected area, the low bioavailability of drugs, and poor drug penetration (Evans, 2001; Vora et al, 2014; Khamidah and Ervianti, 2018)
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