Tanshinone 단삼성분의 전신성 캔디다증에 대한 항균효과

Antifungal Effect of Tanshinone from Salvia miltiorrhiza against Disseminated Candidiasis

The aim of this present study was to investigate the antifungal effect of tanshinones isolated from Salvia mil- tiorrhiza against Candida ablicans, a polymorphic fungus. For the work, tanshinone IIA (TSN), cryptotanshinone (CTS), and dihydrotanshinone I (DTS) were chosen. Initially, their antifungal effect was analyzed by in-vitro susceptibility test. Data from the susceptibility test showed that while all of these three compounds had antifungal activity, DTS was the most potent. At 100 &micro;g DTS/ml, there was about 80% CFU (colony forming unit) reduction as compared to DTS-untreated C. albi- cans yeast cells (P<0.05). Thus, DTS was selected to determine its antifungal activity in a murine model of disseminated candidiasis due to C. albicans. Results showed that DTS enhanced resistance of mice against disseminated candidiasis. Dur- ing the entire period of 30-day observation, 60% of DTS-given mice groups survived whereas control animals all died within 14 days (P<0.05). Moreover, DTS inhibited the hyphal production, one of the virulence factors of this fungus, from the blas- toconidial form of the fungus. Therefore, the tanshinone appears to have antifungal activity specific for C. albicans infection, which could possibly be mediated by the blockage of hyphal production.