Natural and synthetic natural-like phenols as strong anti-fungal agents on Fusarium isolates of clinical relevance

PAOLA CARTA; M. A. DETTORI; DAVIDE FABBRI; GIOVANNA DELOGU; ISMAEL MALBRÁN; SAFA OUFENSOU; WIEM CHTIOUI; VIRGILIO BALMAS; QUIRICO MIGHELI

Catania

Congreso; 6° Convegno dell? Istituto di Chimica Biomolecolare; 2022

Istituto di Chimica Biomolecolare

In hospitals, multi-resistant bacterial and poorly treatable fungal infections have become a serious problem. Fusarium spp. are common human pathogenic fungi implicated in invasive mycoses and infections such as onychomycoses and paronychia. Because of the limited drug arsenal available to treat general fungal infections and the frequent failure of systemic treatments due to resistance phenomena, the search for new therapeutic sources is essential. The objective of this work is to present our studies concerning natural phenols and biphenols and their synthetic derivatives as alternatives to conventional fungicides for human dermatitis. Among plant-derived products, phenolic compounds are a class of specialized metabolites that possess significant antifungal activity. Magnolol and honokiol, two naturally occurring hydroxylated biphenyls, along with some of their derivates, were evaluated on a collection of representative Fusarium isolates of clinical and ecological concern. Our attention was also focused on a class of trans-cinnamic acids, namely p-coumaric, caffeic and ferulic acids, which find wideranging applications in medicine and agriculture due to their excellent antioxidant activity and nutraceutical properties. We have synthesized a series of prenylated derivatives of cinnamic acids. All compounds were tested on a range of Fusarium spp. isolates and the results provide useful insights into the optimal design of phenolic and biphenolic structures with improved antifungal properties.