Tuba ÜNVER, Ayşe Şebnem ERENLER, RAUF MELEKOĞLU, Nusret AKPOLAT, Turgay SEÇKİN, Raul AZİMOV, Fatma Bahar ÖZASLAN

Antifungal activity of microbial chondroitin sulfate against Candida albicans

A vaginal yeast infection called vaginal candidiasis is the most commonly seen type of Candida infections with a rate of 37%. Vaginal candidiasis affects three fourth (75%) of women in their lifetimes, and this is the most common cause of women seeking gynecological care. Vaginal candidiasis can result in serious symptoms such as discharge, itching, burning sensation, pain, rash and irritation in the vagina and vulva. Candida albicans, in particular, is the most common cause of vaginal candidiasis. Therefore, the treatment and control process of Candida species is very important in terms of health. In this study, as a first step, Microbial Chondroitin Sulfate was produced from Escherichia coli C2987 strain by using a specific microbial system and reliable biotechnological methods. After that, the efficacy of Microbial CS as an antifungal agent on C. albicans strains was tested by using the agar dilution method. As a result, it was determined that the Microbial CS was particularly effective against the yeasts C. albicans, and the minimum inhibitory concentration of Microbial CS was 0.32 g/mL. Our findings showed that Microbial CS can be used in the content of various biomedical products that can be used as an antifungal agent for Candida sp. Microbial CS can also be used to treat the disease alone or to support the treatment that increases the efficacy of antibiotics.

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