Eradication of Candida albicans persister cell biofilm by the membranotropic peptide gH625

Bioflm formation poses an important clinical trouble due to resistance to antimicrobial agents;
therefore, there is an urgent demand for new antibioflm strategies that focus on the use of alternative
compounds also in combination with conventional drugs. Drug-tolerant persisters are present in
Candida albicans bioflms and are detected following treatment with high doses of amphotericin B. In
this study, persisters were found in bioflms treated with amphotericin B of two clinical isolate strains,
and were capable to form a new bioflm in situ. We investigated the possibility of eradicating persisterderived bioflms from these two Candida albicans strains, using the peptide gH625 analogue (gH625-M).
Confocal microscopy studies allowed us to characterize the persister-derived bioflm and understand
the mechanism of interaction of gH625-M with the bioflm. These fndings confrm that persisters may
be responsible for Candida bioflm survival, and prove that gH625-M was very efective in eradicating
persister-derived bioflms both alone and in combination with conventional antifungals, mainly
strengthening the antibioflm activity of fuconazole and 5-fucytosine. Our strategy advances our
insights into the development of efective antibioflm therapeutic approaches.