Lathyrol and epoxylathyrol derivatives: modulation of Cdr1p and Mdr1p drug-efflux transporters of Candida albicans in Saccharomyces cerevisiae model

Publication date: Available online 16 April 2017
Source:Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry
Author(s): Andreia Mónico, Shweta Nim, Noélia Duarte, Manpreet Kaur Rawal, Rajendra Prasad, Attilio Di Pietro, Maria-José U. Ferreira
Macrocyclic diterpenes were previously found to be able to modulate the efflux pump activity of Candida albicans multidrug transporters. Most of these compounds were jatrophanes, but only a few number of lathyrane-type diterpenes was evaluated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of nineteen structurally-related lathyrane diterpenes (1-19) to overcome the drug-efflux activity of Cdr1p and Mdr1p transporters of C. albicans, and get some insights on their structure-activity relationships. The transport assay was performed by monitoring Nile Red (NR) efflux in a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain overexpressing the referred efflux pumps from C. albicans. Moreover, a chemosensitization assay was performed in order to evaluate the type of interaction between the inhibitory compounds and the antifungal drug fluconazole. Compounds 1-13 were previously isolated from Euphorbia boetica or obtained by derivatization, and compounds 14-19 were prepared by chemical transformations of compound 4. In the transport assays, compounds 14-19 revealed the strongest inhibitory activity of the Cdr1p efflux pump, ranging from 65 to 85%. Concerning Mdr1p efflux pump, the most active compounds were 1, 3, 6, 8, and 12 (75 to 85%). When used in combination with fluconazole, epoxyboetirane K (2) and euphoboetirane N (18) revealed synergistic effects in the AD-CDR1 yeast strain, overexpressing the Cdr1p transporter, through their ability to reduce the effective concentration of the antifungal drug by 23- and 52 fold, respectively.

Graphical abstract

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