title: Als1 and Als3 regulate the intracellular uptake of copper ions when Candida albicans biofilms are exposed to metallic copper surfaces.
abstract: Copper surfaces possess efficient antimicrobial effect. Here, we reported that copper surfaces could inactivate Candida albicans biofilms within 40 min. The intracellular reactive oxygen species in C. albicans biofilms were immediately stimulated during the contact of copper surfaces, which might be an important factor for killing the mature biofilms. Copper release assay demonstrated that the copper ions automatically released from the surface of 1 mm thick copper coupons with over 99.9% purity are not the key determinant for the copper-mediated killing action. The susceptibility test to copper surfaces by using C. albicans mutant strains, which were involved in efflux pumps, adhesins, biofilms formation or osmotic stress response showed that als1/als1 and als3/als3 displayed higher resistance to the copper surface contact than other mutants did. The intracellular concentration of copper ions was lower in als1/als1 and als3/als3 than that in wild-type strain. Transcriptional analysis revealed that the expression of copper transporter-related gene, CRP1, was significantly increased in als1/als1, als3/als3, suggesting a potential role of ALS1 and ALS3 in absorbing ions by regulating the expression of CRP1 This study provides a potential application in treating pathogenic fungi by using copper surfaces and uncovers the roles of ALS1 and ALS3 in absorbing copper ions for C. albicans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Natural Product Chemistry, Key Lab of Chemical Biology of Ministry of Education, Shandong University, No. 44 West Wenhua Road, Jinan City, Shandong Province 250000, China.
authors.forename: Sha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Natural Product Chemistry, Key Lab of Chemical Biology of Ministry of Education, Shandong University, No. 44 West Wenhua Road, Jinan City, Shandong Province 250000, China.
authors.forename: Wenqiang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: School of Bethune Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun City, Jilin Province 130000, China.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Natural Product Chemistry, Key Lab of Chemical Biology of Ministry of Education, Shandong University, No. 44 West Wenhua Road, Jinan City, Shandong Province 250000, China louhongxiang@sdu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hongxiang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lou
mesh_terms: D018441:Biofilms / Q000187:drug effects*; D002176:Candida albicans / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D003300:Copper / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000633:toxicity; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D017353:Gene Deletion; D007477:Ions / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000633:toxicity; D050296:Microbial Viability / Q000187:drug effects; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C093538:ALS1 protein, Candida albicans; C113620:ALS3 protein, Candida albicans; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D007477:Ions; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D003300:Copper
keywords: CRP1; Candida albicans; biofilms; copper surfaces; reactive oxygen species