Anti-candida biofilm properties of Cameroonian plant extracts

Abstract

Candida infections can be superficial, invasive or disseminating. The virulence of Candida species has been attributed to several factors, including the promotion of hyphae and biofilm formation, adherence to host tissues, and response to environmental changes and morphogenesis. Resistance to many clinically used antifungal agents has led to the need to identify new compounds and drugs for therapeutic use. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the anti-candida and anti-biofilm activities of some Cameroonian plant extracts against Candida albicans and Candida glabrata. The biofilm biomass of C. albicans and C. glabrata was quantified using the violet crystal protocol. A microbroth dilution method was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs), and a biofilm enumeration assay was employed to determine the minimum biofilm inhibition concentrations (MBICs) and minimum biofilm eradication concentrations (MBECs) of the extracts. The absorbance value of the biofilm biomass of C. albicans was 0.14±0.01 and that of C. glabrata was 0.51±0.06. Eugenia uniflora and Terminalia mantaly aqueous leaf extracts showed MICs of 0.3125 and 0.625 mg/mL for C. glabrata, while the MICs for C. albicans were 10 and 0.625 mg/mL, respectively. The MBIC and MBEC of C. glabrata of E. uniflora aqueous leaf extracts were 0.125 and 0.5 mg/mL, respectively, and 0.45 and >1.8 mg/mL, respectively for T. mantaly. The results of this study demonstrated the in vitro anti-biofilm potential of T. mantaly and E. uniflora aqueous leaf extracts against Candida biofilm. Nonetheless, further analyses of a larger number of Candida isolates and plant extracts are needed to validate these findings. Key words: Anti-candida, anti-biofilm, Eugenia uniflora, Terminalia mantaly.