ANTIFUNGAL ACTION AND ANTIBIOFILM POTENTIAL OF DIFFERENT COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES AGAINST YEASTS OF THE CANDIDA GENUS
Antifungal Agents; Biofilms; Phytotherapy; Photochemotherapy; Probiotics.
Candidoses are usually treated with antifungals. However, the effect of these drugs is usually compromised by microbial resistance and adverse effects. In this sense, the increase in the prevalence and complexity of multidrug-resistant microorganisms to antimicrobials have incited the search for complementary and alternative therapies capable of acting effectively against the emerging resistance to medicines. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate comparatively the antimicrobial action and the antibiofilm potential, in vitro, between photodynamic therapy (PDT) with methylene blue, phytotherapy, using the hydroethanolic extract of Spondias mombin L (HE) and the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus in the control of yeasts of the Candida genus, namely: Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis and Candida parapsilosis. For this, the inhibitory activity of microbial growth in its planktonic forms and the antibiofilm activity were investigated, in triplicate, using nystatin 100,000UI/mL as a control. Regarding the statistical analysis, in addition to the descriptive interpretation, the Two-Way ANOVA test was applied. Thus, it was observed that all tested therapies exhibited antifungal and antibiofilm activities. However, when these activities were compared between them and also with the control group, it was found that: the HE showed antifungal activity similar to that of the control group, the probiotic showed the lowest antifungal activity and the PDT showed the highest antibiofilm activity for almost all strains, followed by HE and, finally, by the probiotic. Furthermore, the antibiofilm activities of PDT and HE were similar to the control group, but not higher. In this sense, it was possible to conclude that all studied therapies, especially PDT and HE, have antifungal and antibiofilm activities against the strains of the Candida genus tested, and such activities are sometimes similar to the activities of nystatin 100,000UI/mL.