Cold atmospheric plasma inhibits the growth of Candida albicans by affecting ergosterol biosynthesis and suppresses the fungal virulence factors in vitro.

Background: The pathogenic yeast Candida albicans is the most common opportunistic fungal pathogen that is responsible for a wide array of infections in susceptible individuals. Despite recent progress in developing novel antifungal drugs which combat Candida-related disorders, this fungus is still a major cause of life-threatening infections all over the world. In the present study, the effect of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) was evaluated on the growth of C. albicans with special attention to the ability of the CAP-treated fungus for biofilm formation, ergosterol biosynthesis and phospholipase and proteinase secretory production.

Methods: C. albicans cell suspensions were irradiated over time-scales ranging of 90, 120, 150 and 180s under cold atmospheric plasma contained He/O2 (2%). Treated and untreated yeast cells were analyzed for the growth, biofilm formation, ergosterol content, and activities of phospholipase and proteinase.

Results: Our results showed that CAP remarkably suppressed the growth of C. albicans by 31-82% at the given times. Likewise, CAP strongly inhibited the ergosterol biosynthesis by the fungus in the range of 40-91%, biofilm formation by 43-57% and the activities of phospholipase and proteinase enzymes by 4-45%, dose-dependently.

Conclusion: CAP strongly inhibits the growth and virulence factors of C. albicans and thus, it could be a potential candidate to treat Candida-related superficial and cutaneous infections in practice.