AUTHOR=Yanyun Cao , Ying Tang , Wei Kong , Hua Fang , Haijun Zhu , Ping Zheng , Shunming Xu , Jian Wan 

TITLE=Preliminary Study on Antifungal Mechanism of Aqueous Extract of Cnidium monnieri Against Trichophyton rubrum

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2021.707174

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2021.707174

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Trichoderma rubrum (T. rubrum) is one of the important pathogens because it is the cause of most dermatomycosis. The treatment of <italic>Trichophyton rubrum</italic> 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. <italic>Cnidium monnieri</italic> (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 <italic>C. monnieri</italic> (L.) on the activity of <italic>T. rubrum</italic> by Cell Count Kit-8 assay (CCK-8), and we found that 128 and 256 μg/ml of aqueous extracts of <italic>C. monnieri</italic> (L.) co-cultured with <italic>T. rubrum</italic> for 24 h showed the inhibitory effect on <italic>T. rubrum</italic>. The results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) confirmed that aqueous extract of <italic>C. monnieri</italic> (L.) damaged the <italic>T. rubrum</italic>. At the same time, mass spectrometry screening with <italic>T. rubrum</italic> before and after the treatment of 256 μg/ml of aqueous extracts of <italic>C. monnieri</italic> (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 <italic>C. monnieri</italic> (L.) could destroy the morphology of mycelia and the internal structure of <italic>T. rubrum</italic>, and it could inhibit the growth of <italic>T. rubrum</italic>. The antifungal effect of aqueous extract of <italic>C. monnieri</italic> (L.) may be related to the downregulation of the expression of CHS in <italic>T. rubrum</italic>, and CHS may be one of the potential targets of its antifungal mechanism. We concluded that aqueous extract from <italic>C. monnieri</italic> (L.) may be a potential candidate for antifungal agents.</p>