Biofilm Formation by Candida albicans is Inhibited by 4,4-Dichloro Diphenyl Diselenide (pCl-PhSe)2

Candida species are the fourth most common cause of nosocomial bloodstream infections. An increase in the frequency of infections which have become refractory to standard antifungal therapyhave been observed. Recently, the effect of different organochalcogenide compounds reducing both growth and germ tube formation by Candida albicans was demonstrated. This work studied the effect of the organochalcogenide compound (pCl-PhSe)2 on both growth and biofilm formation by Candida albicans. A decrease in C. albicans growth in the presence of crescent concentrations of (pCl- PhSe)2 was observed, in a cell density dependent manner. The inhibition of Candida growth by 10µM (pCl-PhSe)2 was ~60, 57, 47 and 24%, in cell densities of 103, 104, 105 and 106 cells/ml, respectively. The compound (pCl-PhSe)2 was able to inhibit biofilm formation by Candida albicans, when biofilm was performed using a cell density of 106 cells/ml. In addition, an increase in both ROS production (96%) and cell membrane permeability (1.107-fold) by 10 µM (pCl-PhSe)2 was observed in C. albicans.These results demonstrate that the organochalcogenide compound (pCl-PhSe)2 presents a great potential to inhibit both growth and biofilm formation by C. albicans.