Lactobacillus paracasei 28.4 reduces in vitro hyphae formation of Candida albicans and prevents the filamentation in an experimental model of Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of microbe-microbe interactions to identify a strain of Lactobacillus that could reduce the filamentation of Candida albicans ATCC 18804 using in vitro and in vivo models. Thus presenting a probiotic effect against the fungal pathogen. First, we analyzed the ability of 25 clinical isolates of Lactobacillus to reduce filamentation in C. albicans in vitro. We found that L. paracasei isolate 28.4 exhibited the greatest reduction of C. albicans hyphae (p = 0.0109). This reduction was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy analysis. The influence of C. albicans filamentation was found to be contributed through reduced gene expression of filament associated genes (TEC1 and UME6). In an in vivo study, prophylactic provisions with L. paracasei increased the survival of Caenorhabditis elegans worms infected with C. albicans (p = 0.0001) by 29%. Prolonged survival was accompanied by the prevention of cuticle rupture of 27% of the worms by filamentation of C. albicans, a phenotype that is characteristic of C. albicans killing of nematodes, compared to the control group. Lactobacillus paracasei isolate 28.4 reduced the filamentation of C. albicans in vitro by negatively regulating the TEC1 and UME6 genes that are essential for the production of hyphae. Prophylactic provision of Lactobacillus paracasei 28.4 protected C. elegans against candidiasis in vivo. L. paracasei 28.4 has the potential to be employed as an alternative method to control candidiasis.

Curative Treatment of Candidiasis by the Live Biotherapeutic Microorganism Lactobacillus rhamnosus Lcr35® in the Invertebrate Model Caenorhabditis elegans: First Mechanistic Insights

“…We have shown that even after curative treatment with the LBM, the digestive tract of the nematode is colonized by the pathogen without showing a pathological state. These data are in accordance with De Barros et al and suggest that Lcr35 ® induced repression of virulence factors in C. albicans [16]. In C. elegans, DAF-16 is closely related to mammalian FOXO3a, a transcription factor involved in the inflammatory process [38].…”

“…These have provided answers about the mechanisms of action allowing an LBM to prevent the installation of a pathogen with, for instance, the reduction of C. albicans hyphae formation [12][13][14][15][16]. However, few studies showing the efficacy of LBM against candidiasis have been conducted and no "curative" study relative to C. albicans was conducted using the nematode C. elegans [12,16]. The only curative study was carried out by Sharma and colleagues against infections with E. coli pathogenic strains [17].…”

Efficacy of Using Probiotics with Antagonistic Activity against Pathogens of Wound Infections: An Integrative Review of Literature

“…ere is also some published literature on the use of models to simulate wound healing [130,131], but there is still no published literature on the use of probiotics with them. Another possibility is the use of the nematode's Caenorhabditis elegans epidermis as a model skin [132,133]. ere is even an international patent for microspheres from gelatin as a carrier for probiotic Lactobacillus spp.…”

The role of Lactobacillus species in the control of Candida via biotrophic interactions

“…Anyhow, outside of the host environment, lactic acid could be less important as antifungal agent. In a co-culture system with C. albicans, L. paracasei [120] and L. rhamnosus, L. casei and L. acidophilus [13] do not acidify the environment significantly. This could indicate that these isolates do not produce sufficient amount of lactic acid.…”

“…These differences could arise from the media used for co-culture. Whereas both studies used brain heart infusion (BHI) broth for their assays [13,120], we used MRS, which favors Lactobacillus growth and is slightly acidic. Of note, BHI medium is buffered to a neutral pH.…”