The postantifungal effect of nystatin and its impact on adhesion attributes of oral Candida dubliniensis isolates

The postantifungal effect (PAFE) has an impact on candidal pathogenicity. However, there is no information on either the PAFE or its impact on adhesion traits of oral Candida dubliniensis isolates. Oral candidosis can be treated topically with nystatin. Adhesion to buccal epithelial cells (BEC), germ tube (GT) formation and relative cell surface hydrophobicity (CSH) are all colonisation attributes of candidal pathogenicity. Hence, the main objective of this study was to investigate the in vitro PAFE on 20 C. dubliniensis isolates following exposure to nystatin. In addition, the impact of nystatin-induced PAFE on adhesion to BEC, GT formation and relative CSH of C. dubliniensis isolates were also evaluated. After determining the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of nystatin, C. dubliniensis isolates were exposed to sublethal concentrations of nystatin for 1h. Following this exposure, the drug was removed and PAFE, adhesion to BEC, GT formation and relative CSH were determined by a previously described turbidometric method, adhesion assay, germ tube induction assay and biphasic aqueous-hydrocarbon assay respectively. MIC (g/ml) of C. dubliniensis isolates to nystatin ranged from 0.09 to 0.78. The nystatin-induced mean PAFE (hours) on C. dubliniensis isolates was 2.17. Compared with the controls, exposure to nystatin suppressed the ability of C. dubliniensis isolates to adhere BEC, GT formation and relative CSH by a mean percentage reduction of 74.45% (P<0.0001), 95.92% (P<0.0001) and 34.81 (P<0.05) respectively. Hence, brief exposure of C. dubliniensis isolates to nystatin would continue to wield an antifungal effect by suppressing growth as well as its adhesion attributes.