Antifungal unsaturated cyclic Mannich ketones and amino alcohols: study of mechanism of action.

The antifungal activity of some known unsaturated Mannich ketones and their amino alcohols has been reported and the mechanism of antifungal action has been studied. The inhibition of the fungal ergosterol, chitin, protein synthesis and pseudohypha formation was investigated. According to our results, Mannich ketones can influence the development of pseudohyphae of Candida albicans strains. In addition, they are able to induce significant changes in the protein composition of this fungal strain. Some of our Mannich ketones have shown inhibitory effect on the fungal chitin synthase enzyme. QSAR studies were also carried out.