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The UQ doctoral student, Mario D. Garcia, directs one of the many experiments involved in research. Credit: University of Queensland
A chemical compound found in common herbicides could help fight human fungal pathogens contracted in the hospital, which kill about two million people a year.
A team of international researchers led by the University of Queensland discovered that chlorimuron ethyl, a chemical, was also targeting a variety of life-threatening fungal infections for humans, particularly people who were subjected to treatments that put the body's immune system in danger. tough test.
Dr. Luke Guddat, of UQ's School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience, said the discovery was very timely, given the growth of drug-resistant infections.
"There are more drug-resistant fungal diseases than ever – posing a major threat to human health worldwide – and new drugs are urgently needed to fight these diseases," he said.
"Through this research, we wanted to know if a specific class of commercial herbicides was able to stop the growth of these infections.
"We thought it was a good idea because plants and fungi have an enzyme similar to that inhibited by these chemicals, and it turns out we were right."
The researchers tested five different families of compounds to determine whether they could inhibit a key enzyme of the fungal species, Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans.
Credit: University of Queensland
One of the five, chlorimurion ethyl, was a notable candidate.
"In studies in petri dishes and in mice, it has been extremely effective in preventing the proliferation of growth," said Dr. Guddat.
By inhibiting this enzyme, you are removing an essential metabolic step that consists of three types of amino acids that these infections must develop.
"And more importantly, humans do not have this enzyme – we get these amino acids from our food – so there is very little chance that these compounds are toxic to humans, a factor that limits Use of many other antifungals currently prescribed drugs. "
Dr. Guddat said that although the development of compounds to treat this type of infection is promising, more research is needed.
"We are only at the beginning of this trip, but we look forward to seeing the prospects for new treatments in the future."
The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Explore further:
New study targets fatal fungal infections
More information:
Mario D. Garcia et al. Commercial herbicides inhibiting AHAS are promising drugs for the treatment of pathogenic fungal infections in humans, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018). DOI: 10.1073 / pnas.1809422115
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