Molecular Elucidation of Riboflavin Production and Regulation in Candida albicans, toward a Novel Antifungal Drug Target

Abstract

Candida albicans is an important fungal pathogen causing common superficial infections as well as invasive diseases with an extremely high morbidity and mortality. Antifungal therapies are limited in efficiency and availability. In this research, we describe the regulation of riboflavin production in C. albicans . Since riboflavin biosynthesis is essential to this organism, we can appreciate that targeting it would be a promising new strategy to combat these fungal infections. We provide evidence that one particular enzyme in the production process, Ca Rib1, would be most promising as an antifungal drug target, as it plays a central role in regulation and proves to be essential in a mouse model of systemic infection.