Effect of Dendrosomal Nanocurcumin on CaMCA1 Gene Expression and Encoding Metacaspase in Candida Species and its Possible Role in Cell Death

This study aimed to evaluate the antifungal effect of dendrosomal nanocurcumin against Candida species and the effect of this on the expression of CaMCA1 and HSP90 genes, which may induce programmed cell death in fungal cells.
Sensitivity to curcumin and nanocurcumin in four candida species were evaluated according to CLSI (M27-S4) guideline. Then, the expression of HSP90 and CAMCA1 genes of the treated cells with dendrosomal Nanocorcumin was examined using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method.
Findings: The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) level of nanocurcumin was 1 mg/ml for Candida krusei and 0.5 mg/ml for other strains. The RT-PCR results revealed the increasing of the expression of CAMCA1 gene. This expression was significant in Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis and Candida parapsilosis while no increasing was observed in Candida krusei. The expression of HSP90 gene was decreased in Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis and was without any change in other strains.
The results of current study showed that nanocurcumin is a more efficient antifungal agent compared with curcumin. The antifungal effect is through induction of apoptosis in yeast and increasing in gene expression confirms the mechanism of apoptosis. In this study, it was observed that this effect is due to increasing in gene expression CaMCA1. Decrease and no change in gene expression of HSP90 showed that nanocorcumin does not impose antifungal effects through this gene.