STOCKHOLM, Sweden—At Stockholm University, researchers set out to determine whether different antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are able to inhibit the growth of the commensal yeast Malassezia sympodialis, which can act as a trigger factor in different skin disorders, such as atopic eczema (AE), seborrhoeic eczema (SE) and dandruff (Letters in Applied Microbiology. Nov. 21, 2011). According to their findings, several CPPs, while being nontoxic to mammalian cells, possess growth inhibitory activity on the very stringent yeast M. sympodialis.
The antifungal activity of 21 different AMPs and CPPs was investigated by microdilution assay and plate counting to determine the number of colony forming units. Five CPPs and one AMP showed fungicidal activity at submicromolar concentrations. Importantly, no membrane damage on human keratinocytes was detected after peptide treatment.
Finding five CPPs and one AMP that are harmless toward mammalian cells and act as antifungal agents against M. sympodialis opens up the possibility to use these in the treatment for AE, SE and dandruff. Researchers noted further studies to elucidate the mechanism are warranted.
