[Frontiers in Bioscience E4, 1195-1209, January 1, 2012]

Lipidome analysis reveals antifungal polyphenol curcumin affects membrane lipid homeostasis

Monika Sharma1, Sanjiveeni Dhamgaye1, Ashutosh Singh1, Rajendra Prasad1

1Membrane Biology Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi-110067, India

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3.Materials and Methods
3.1. Materials
3.2. Strain Media and Culture Conditions
3.3. RNA Isolation
3.4. RT-PCR
3.5. Lipid Extraction
3.6. Electron spray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) based lipid profiling
3.6.1. Phosphoglyceride Quantification
3.6.2. Sphingolipid Quantification
3.6.3. Sterol esters, di- and tri-acyl glycerol quantification
3.7. Sterol quantification by Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS)
4. Results
4.1. Lipidome analysis of CUR treated Candida cells
4.2. CUR treatment changes composition of molecular species of PGLs
4.3. Effect of CUR on SLs
4.4. Sterol biosynthetic pathway is targeted by CUR
4.5. Effect of CUR on di- and tri- acyl glycerols
4.6. Lipid mutants are hyper susceptible to CUR
4.7. CUR down regulates Δ5, 6 desaturase (ERG 3)
5. Discussion
6. Acknowledgments
7. References

1. ABSTRACT

This study shows that antifungal curcumin (CUR), significantly depletes ergosterol levels in Candida albicans. CUR while displaying synergy with fluconazole (FLC) lowers ergosterol. However, CUR alone at its synergistic concentration (lower than MIC50), could not affect ergosterol contents. For deeper insight of CUR effects on lipids, we performed high throughput mass spectroscopy (MS) based lipid profiling of C. albicans cells. The lipidome analysis revealed that there were no major changes in phosphoglycerides (PGLs) composition following CUR treatment of Candida, however, significant differences in molecular species of PGLs were detected. Among major SPLs, CUR treatment resulted in the reduction of ceramide and accumulation of IPCs levels. The lipidome of CUR treated cells confirmed a dramatic drop in the ergosterol levels with a simultaneous accumulation of its biosynthetic precursors. This was further supported by the fact that the mutants defective in ergosterol biosynthesis (ERG2 and ERG11) and those lacking the transcription factor regulating ergosterol biosynthesis, UPC2, were highly susceptible to CUR. Our study first time shows that CUR, for its antifungal activity, targets and down regulates Δ5, 6 desaturase (ERG3) resulting in depletion of ergosterol. This results in parallel accumulation of ergosterol biosynthetic precursors, generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and cell death.