Molecules, Vol. 23, Pages 1218: Sterol Composition of Clinically Relevant Mucorales and Changes Resulting from Posaconazole Treatment

Molecules, Vol. 23, Pages 1218: Sterol Composition of Clinically Relevant Mucorales and Changes Resulting from Posaconazole Treatment Molecules doi: 10.3390/molecules23051218 Authors: Christoph Müller Thomas Neugebauer Patrizia Zill Cornelia Lass-Flörl Franz Bracher Ulrike Binder Mucorales are fungi with increasing importance in the clinics. Infections take a rapidly progressive course resulting in high mortality rates. The ergosterol biosynthesis pathway and sterol composition are of interest, since they are targeted by currently applied antifungal drugs. Nevertheless, Mucorales often exhibit resistance to these drugs, resulting in therapeutic failure. Here, sterol patterns of six clinically relevant Mucorales (Lichtheimia corymbifera, Lichtheimia ramosa, Mucor circinelloides, Rhizomucor pusillus, Rhizopus arrhizus, and Rhizopus microsporus) were analysed in a targeted metabolomics fashion after derivatization by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Additionally, the effect of posaconazole (POS) treatment on the sterol pattern of R. arrhizus was evaluated. Overall, fifteen different sterols were detected with species dependent variations in the total and relative sterol amount. Sterol analysis from R. arrhizus hyphae confronted with sublethal concentrations of posaconazole revealed the accumulation of 14-methylergosta-8,24-diene-3,6-diol, which is a toxic sterol that was previously only detected in yeasts. Sterol content and composition were further comp...
Source: Molecules - Category: Chemistry Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research