Repurposing statins as potential antifungal agents for Candida albicans: in-vitro and in-silico approach.

AIM: Candida is a devastating fungal pathogen causing infection, exhibiting biofilm formation and leading to significant mortality and morbidity. This study aims to evaluate the antifungal efficacy of Atorvastatin against Candida albicans.

METHODOLOGY: We compared the antifungal activity of two statins, Atorvastatin and Simvastatin, against C. albicans (MTCC 854) using well diffusion, broth dilution for method for minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and non-inhibitory concentration (NIC) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC), as well as growth kinetic assay. Furthermore, the anti-biofilm activity and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation assays were performed. Molecular docking studies were conducted with C. albicans target proteins to analyze binding interactions.

RESULTS

Atorvastatin demonstrated a larger zone of inhibition than amphotericin B (positive control) and a lower MIC (6.65 µg/ml), whereas Simvastatin was found to be less effective. Further, Atorvastatin showed better growth inhibitory and anti-biofilm activity in comparison to Simvastatin. ROS generation assay revealed an 18-fold increase in oxidative stress with Atorvastatin, while Simvastatin showed only a 4-fold increase. Molecular docking confirmed high binding affinity of Atorvastatin as compared with lovastatin and simvastatin to key virulence proteins of C. albicans, supporting its antifungal potential.

CONCLUSIONS

Atorvastatin exhibits antifungal activity against C. albicans by targeting multiple proteins and can be used as a repurposed antifungal agent. The present study is aligned with SDG-3.