Atividade dos óleos essenciais de Litsea cubeba e Cymbopogon martini sobre isolados do complexo Cryptococcus neoformans

• Autor(a) principal: Treméa, Carolina Martins
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFG
• dARK ID: ark:/38995/001300000c36k
• Texto Completo: http://repositorio.bc.ufg.br/tede/handle/tede/5748
• topic: Complexo Cryptococcus neoformans; Óleos essenciais; Litsea cubeba; Cymbopogon martini; Cryptococcus neoformans species complex; Esential oils; Litsea cubeba; Cymbopogon martini; CIENCIAS BIOLOGICAS::PARASITOLOGIA

Cryptococcosis is a fungal infection caused by species of the complex Cryptococcus neoformans (C. neoformans and C. gattii) with high incidence in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Antifungal drugs used in therapy of this infection are scarce and, in addition, have evident toxicity and low effectiveness, which motivates the search for new candidates to antifungals. Essential oils (EOs) extracted from the fruit of Litsea cubeba (Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Pers.) and leaves of Palmarosa (Cymbopogon martini (Roxb.) Will. Watson) and its major constituents, citral and geraniol, were investigated as antifungal sources. The aims of this work were to determine the isolated or associated antifungal activity of EOs and major constituents with amphotericin B (AMB) or fluconazole (FLU) on 15 isolates and two standard strains of C. neoformans complex, evaluate the time-kill curve, the action on the biosynthesis of ergosterol and on cell membrane, in addition to verify the cytotoxicity of EOs and major constituents on human erythrocytes. By in vitro susceptibility testing and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC), the best activities were to L. cubeba and citral. The EOs and major constituents exhibited minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) between 16 and 512 μg/mL and 64 and 2048 μg/mL, with a MIC90 of 128 μg/mL for L. cubeba and citral, and 512 μg/mL for C. martini and geraniol. To evaluate the association of EOs and major constituents with antifungal agents was performed the Chequerboard method, that showed indifference in the association of AMB and L. cubeba (94.1%) or citral (70.6%). In association with FLU, L. cubeba was antagonistic (76.5%) and indifferent (94%) for citral. C. martini and geraniol showed synergism associated with AMB, respectively, in 52.9 and 70.6% of isolates, and showed indifference when associated with the FLU in 64.7% and 88.2%. C. gattii 24065 time-kill curve under the action of EOs and major constituents showed a rapid fungicidal activity, which occurred after one hour incubation for L. cubeba, C. martini and geraniol, and after two hours for citral. The amount of ergosterol was quantified after contact with the EOs and major constituents and showed that L. cubeba and citral inhibited 100% of sterol biosynthesis in MIC and 64% for C. martini. This is the probably mechanism of action of these agents, except for geraniol, which reduced only 12% in MIC. The major compounds of EOs showed no ability to injure the plasma membrane of C. gattii, since an average of 2.7% propidium iodide labeled cells were detected by flow cytometry. The in vitro cytotoxicity assay by hemolysis showed that EOs and major constituents were not toxic in the MIC and MFCs. Taken together, our results showed that the EOs of L. cubeba and C. martini and their major constituents, citral e geraniol are promising as candidates for new antifungal agents.