Thiamine antivitamins – an opportunity of therapy of fungal infections caused by Malassezia pachydermatis and Candida albicans

Severe skin diseases and systemic fungaemia are caused by Malassezia pachydermatis and Candida albicans respectively. Antifungal therapies are less effective because of chronic character of infections and high percentage of relapses. Therefore, there is a great need to develop new strategies of antifungal therapies. We previously found that oxythiamine decreases proliferation of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), therefore we suggest that thiamine antivitamins can be considered as antifungal agents. The aim of this study was the comparison of thiamine antivitamins (oxythiamine, amprolium, thiochrome, tetrahydrothiamine and tetrahydrooxythiamine) inhibitory effect on the growth rate and energetic metabolism efficiency in non-pathogenic S. cerevisiae and two potentially pathogenic species M. pachydermatis and C. albicans. Investigated species were cultured on a Sabouraud medium supplemented with trace elements in the presence (40 mg l(-1)) or absence of each tested antivitamins to estimate their influence on growth rate, enzyme activity and kinetic parameters of pyruvate decarboxylase and malate dehydrogenase of each tested species. Oxythiamine was the only antivitamin with antifungal potential. M. pachydermatis and S. cerevisiae were the most sensitive, whereas C. albicans was the least sensitive to oxythiamine action. Oxythiamine can be considered as supportive agent in superficial mycoses treatment, especially those caused by species from the genus Malassezia.