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The glucocorticoid betamethasone (BM) has potent anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive effects; however, it increases the susceptibility of patients to superficial Candida infections. Previously we found that this disadvantageous side effect can be counteracted by menadione sodium bisulfite (MSB) induced oxidative stress treatment. The fungus specific protein phosphatase Z1 (CaPpz1) has a pivotal role in oxidative stress response of Candida albicans and was proposed as a potential antifungal drug target. The aim of this study was to investigate the combined effects of CaPPZ1 gene deletion and MSB treatment in BM pre-treated C. albicans cultures. We found that the combined treatment increased redox imbalance, enhanced the specific activities of antioxidant enzymes, and reduced the growth in cappz1 mutant (KO) strain. RNASeq data demonstrated that the presence of BM markedly elevated the number of differentially expressed genes in the MSB treated KO cultures. Accumulation of reactive oxygen species, increased iron content and fatty acid oxidation, as well as the inhibiting ergosterol biosynthesis and RNA metabolic processes explain, at least in part, the fungistatic effect caused by the combined stress exposure. We suggest that the synergism between MSB treatment and CaPpz1 inhibition could be considered in developing of a novel combinatorial antifungal strategy accompanying steroid therapy.

The relationship between acetylator phenotype and the inhibitory effect of cimetidine on the hepatic metabolism of antipyrine has been studied in 20 subjects. Cimetidine, 1,0 g/day resulted in a significant decrease in the metabolic clearance rate of antipyrine, but only in slow acetylators, as fast acetylators were less affected. No sex difference was observed. No major change occurred in the urinary excretion of D-glucaric acid, which means that cimetidine had not-affected that Phase II reaction. It did significantly decrease the urinary partial clearance rate of norantipyrine, leaving that of antipyrine and 4-OH-antipyrine unchanged, which suggests that cimetidine had preferentially inhibited the P450 isozyme that catalyses norantipyrine formation.

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