Efeito de bactérias probióticas sobre Candida albicans: ensaios em cultura de macrófagos e de biofilme

The infection rates of Candida albicans in human may be reduced by probiotics. However, the mechanisms involved in the interaction between C. albicans and probiotic bacteria are largely unknown. The present study comprised two parts. The first aimed to test the hypothesis that probiotics may impair the signaling induced by C. albicans in human macrophages, thus lowering the inflammatory challenge. The second aimed to evaluate the inhibitory effects of Lactobacillus on different phases of C. albicans biofilm development. In the first part, macrophages were pretreated with a probiotic strain (Lactobacillus rhamnosus LR32, Lactobacillus casei L324m and Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM) and challenged with C. albicans and/or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of Escherichia coli in a co-culture assay. After incubation, cytokine profile of macrophage’s supernatant was assessed by ELISA and the expression of clec7a gene was determined by RT-qPCR. Probiotic strains altered the cytokine profile of macrophages stimulated with LPS and C. albicans, leading to increased levels of IL-10 and reduced levels of IL-12 (prelative expression of clec7a gene encoding Dectin-1 receptor (p < 0.05). In the second part, quantification of biofilm growth and microscopic analyses were performed on C. albicans biofilms treated with Lactobacillus cell suspensions and their supernatants. Lactobacilli induced a significant reduction (p0.05), but significantly reduced the early stages of Candida biofilm formation.