CASPOFUNGIN INDUCES AIF1-DEPENDANT PROGRAMMED CELL DEATH IN SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE AND CANDIDA ALBICANS Morgan McCarthy, Faith Donaghey, Christopher Chin, Katherine Helming, Nicanor Austriaco, Department of Biology, Providence College, Providence, RI RI-INBRE Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program Caspofungin was the first member of a new class of antifungals called echinocandins to be approved by a drug regulatory authority. In recent years, several laboratories have shown that a wide range of antifungal drugs leads to programmed cell death (PCD) in yeast that is reminiscent of apoptosis in mammalian cells. We now provide evidence that Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells cultured in media containing caspofungin manifest the classical hallmarks of PCD in yeast, including the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the generation of caspases, change in the mitochondrial membrane potenetial and fragmentation of mitochondria. In addition to causing PCD in yeast, caspofungin also causes PCD in Candida albicans, a fungus that causes many infections in humans. Our data suggests that PCD triggered by caspofungin requires AIF1 but not YCA1 in both Saccharomyces cereisiae and Candida albicans.
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