Wide differences exist among the polyene antibiotics, nystatin, rimocidin, filipin, pimaricin, and amphotericin B, with reference to steroid interference with their antifungal activities against Candida albicans. Of the numerous steroids tested, ergosterol was the only one which effectively antagonized the antifungal activity of all five polyene antibiotics. The antifungal activities of nystati...

The electrophoretic behavior of powdered ergosterol crystals is identical with that previously found for cholesterol within the limits of experimental error. Evidence for an adsorption hypothesis is presented to explain this phenomenon.

The (1)H NMR technique was applied to study binding of AmB, an antifungal drug, to lipid membranes formed with egg yolk phosphatidylcholine. The analysis of (1)H NMR spectra of liposomes, containing also cholesterol and ergosterol (at 40 mol%), shows that AmB binds preferentially to the polar headgroups. Such a binding restricts molecular motion of the choline fragment in the hydrophilic region...

The thiocarbamate antimycotics tolnaftate and tolciclate blocked sterol biosynthesis in fungal cells and cell extracts, with accumulation of squalene. This point of action was confirmed by the direct inhibition of microsomal squalene epoxidase from Candida albicans. There was no inhibition of other steps in ergosterol biosynthesis. In whole Candida cells, ergosterol biosynthesis inhibition was ...

Lipid bilayer membranes composed of DOPC, DPPC, and a series of sterols demix into coexisting liquid phases below a miscibility transition temperature. We use fluorescence microscopy to directly observe phase transitions in vesicles of 1:1:1 DOPC/DPPC/sterol within giant unilamellar vesicles. We show that vesicles containing the "promoter" sterols cholesterol, ergosterol, 25-hydroxycholesterol,...

Background and Purpose: The frequency of opportunistic fungal infections in immunocompromised patients, especially by Candida species, has sharply increased in the last few decades. The objective of this study was to analyse the ergosterol content and gene expression profiling of clinical isolates of fluconazole resistant Candida albicans. Materials and Methods: Sixty clinical samples were ide...

Fluconazole is commonly used both to prevent and to treat invasive neonatal Candida albicans infection. This drug is a potent, selective, triazole inhibitor of the fungal enzymes involved in ergosterol synthesis. It is largely excreted unchanged in the urine. In infants with a birth weight

In the microwave-radiofrequency spectrum, Wi-Fi is a short-range wireless broadband technology, which transmits at frequency of 2.5 GHz. This type technology has been positioned itself as one most widely used technological advances in recent years. It reported that direct exposition to radiofrequencies can induce physiological changes different animals and plants species. One degenerative effec...