Abstract
Recent studies (Kinsky, 1962a) have suggested that the permeability alterations which polyene antifungal antibiotics induce in mycelial mats and protoplasts of Neurospora (Kinsky, 1961, 1962b) may be a consequence of antibiotic binding to the cell membrane. Gottlieb et al. (1958, 1961) have shown that sterols antagonize the inhibitory action of the antibiotics and, in confirmation of these results, evidence was presented indicating that ergosterol (or a related compound) may be required for nystatin binding to particles derived from the Neurospora membrane. Bacteria do not contain sterols (Asselineau and Lederer, 1960) and thus these investigations have provided a basis for the contention that the selective toxicity of the polyene antibiotics is due to a unique component in the membrane. Even stronger support for this argument would be provided by the converse demonstration that all cells, known to contain sterols in their membrane, manifest a permeability change in the presence of polyene antibiotics. This possibility was rendered probable by the recent observation of Dingle and Lucy (1962) that various mammalian erythrocytes were rapidly lysed by the most extensively investigated polyene compound, vitamin A.
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