Polymycovirus infection sensitizes Aspergillus fumigatus for antifungal effects of nikkomycin Z
Author(s)
Sass, Gabriele
Kotta-Loizou, Ioly
Martinez, Marife
Larwood, David J
Stevens, David A
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Infection with Aspergillus fumigatus polymycovirus 1 (AfuPmV-1) weakens resistance of Aspergillus fumigatus common reference strain Af293 biofilms in intermicrobial competition with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We compared the sensitivity of two infected and one virus-free Af293 strains to antifungal drugs. All three were comparably sensitive to drugs affecting fungal membranes (voriconazole, amphotericin) or cell wall glucan synthesis (micafungin, caspofungin). In contrast, forming biofilms of virus-free Af293 were much more resistant than AfuPmV-1-infected Af293 to nikkomycin Z (NikZ), a drug inhibiting chitin synthase. The IC50 for NikZ on biofilms was between 3.8 and 7.5 µg/mL for virus-free Af293 and 0.94-1.88 µg/mL for infected strains. The IC50 for the virus-free A. fumigatus strain 10AF was ~2 µg/mL in most experiments. NikZ also modestly affected the planktonic growth of infected Af293 more than the virus-free strain (MIC 50%, 2 and 4 µg/mL, respectively). Virus-free Af293 biofilm showed increased metabolism, and fungus growing as biofilm or planktonically showed increased growth compared to infected; these differences do not explain the resistance of the virus-free fungus to NikZ. In summary, AfuPmV-1 infection sensitized A. fumigatus to NikZ, but did not affect response to drugs commonly used against A. fumigatus infection. Virus infection had a greater effect on NikZ inhibition of biofilm than planktonic growth.
Date Issued
2023-01-10
Date Acceptance
2023-01-06
Citation
Viruses, 2023, 15 (1), pp.1-13
ISSN
1999-4915
Publisher
MDPI AG
Start Page
1
End Page
13
Journal / Book Title
Viruses
Volume
15
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36680240
PII: v15010197
Subjects
Aspergillus fumigatus
antifungal drugs
biofilm
nikkomycin Z
polymycovirus
therapy
Antifungal Agents
Aspergillus fumigatus
Aminoglycosides
Amphotericin B
RNA Viruses
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Switzerland
Article Number
197
Date Publish Online
2023-01-10