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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oral. Health
Sec. Oral Infections and Microbes
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2025.1517210
This article is part of the Research Topic Coping with Antimicrobial Resistance in the Context of Dental Medicine View all 4 articles

Unveiling the Synergistic Effect of Icariin and Azole Drugs on Candida albicans

Provisionally accepted
Barbod Aliaghazadeh Barbod Aliaghazadeh 1Marina Pascual-Ortiz Marina Pascual-Ortiz 1Alba Martínez Alba Martínez 2Veronica Veses Veronica Veses 1*Chirag C. Sheth Chirag C. Sheth 3
  • 1 Department of Biomedical Sciences, Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera, Valencia, Spain
  • 2 Department of Pharmacy, Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera, Valencia, Spain
  • 3 Department of Medicine and Surgery, Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera, Valencia, Spain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The current study explores the synergistic effects of icariin, a flavonoid found in plants of the genus Epimedium, in combination with selected antifungal agents, against Candida albicans in vitro. This flavonoid significantly enhanced the in vitro effect of fluconazole, by decreasing the minimum inhibitory concentration against C. albicans. This effect was also observed when combining icariin with ketoconazole and itraconazole of the azole family respectively. Interestingly, no activityenhancing effect was observed when icariin was combined with other classes of antifungals, such as amphotericin B or caspofungin. We conclude that icariin may increase the sensitivity of C. albicans to azoles via a cell membrane mediated mechanism, based on our results from FUN-1 microscopy and co-incubation with cell wall and cell membrane stressors. Further research is required to explore these effects in clinical isolates, particularly fluconazole-resistant C. albicans, with a view towards the clinical application of icariin as a co-adjuvant in antifungal azole therapy.

    Keywords: antimicrobial resistance, Antifungal treatment, Flavonoids, Candida albicans, Icariin

    Received: 25 Oct 2024; Accepted: 31 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Aliaghazadeh, Pascual-Ortiz, Martínez, Veses and Sheth. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Veronica Veses, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera, Valencia, Spain

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.