Rosemary essential oil and its components 1,8-cineole and α-pinene induce ROS-dependent lethality and ROS-independent virulence inhibition in Candida albican

Date
2022-11-16
Authors
Shahina, Zinnat
Al Homsi, Raymond
Price, Jared D. W.
Whiteway, Malcolm
Sultana, Taranum
Dahms, Tanya E. S.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Abstract

The essential oil from Rosmarinus officinalis L., a composite mixture of plant-derived secondary metabolites, exhibits antifungal activity against virulent candidal species. Here we report the impact of rosemary oil and two of its components, the monoterpene α-pinene and the monoterpenoid 1,8-cineole, against Candida albicans, which induce ROS-dependent cell death at high concentrations and inhibit hyphal morphogenesis and biofilm formation at lower concentrations. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (100% inhibition) for both rosemary oil and 1,8-cineole were 4500 μg/ml and 3125 μg/ml for α-pinene, with the two components exhibiting partial synergy (FICI = 0.55 ± 0.07). At MIC and 1/2 MIC, rosemary oil and its components induced a generalized cell wall stress response, causing damage to cellular and organelle membranes, along with elevated chitin production and increased cell surface adhesion and elasticity, leading to complete vacuolar segregation, mitochondrial depolarization, elevated reactive oxygen species, microtubule dysfunction, and cell cycle arrest mainly at the G1/S phase, consequently triggering cell death. Interestingly, the same oils at lower fractional MIC (1/8-1/4) inhibited virulence traits, including reduction of mycelium (up to 2-fold) and biofilm (up to 4-fold) formation, through a ROS-independent mechanism.

Description
© 2022 Shahina et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Citation
Shahina Z, Al Homsi R, Price JDW, Whiteway M, Sultana T, Dahms TES (2022) Rosemary essential oil and its components 1,8-cineole and α-pinene induce ROS-dependent lethality and ROS-independent virulence inhibition in Candida albicans. PLoS ONE 17(11): e0277097. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277097
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