Inhibitory Effect of Morin Against Pathogenicity and Virulence Factor Production: An and Approaches.

is considered an exclusive etiologic agent of candidiasis, a very common fungal infection in human. The expression of virulence factors contributes highly to the pathogenicity of . These factors include biofilm formation, yeast-to-hyphal transition, adhesins, aspartyl proteases, and phospholipases secretion. Moreover, resistance development is a critical issue for the therapeutic failure of antifungal agents against systemic candidiasis. To circumvent resistance development, the present study investigated the virulence targeted therapeutic activity of the phyto-bioactive compound morin against . Morin is a natural compound commonly found in medicinal plants and widely used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic products/industries. The present study explicated the significant inhibitory potential of morin against biofilm formation and other virulence factors' production, such as yeast-hyphal formation, phospholipase, and exopolymeric substances, in . Further, qPCR analysis confirmed the downregulation of biofilm and virlence-related genes in upon morin treatment, which is in correspondence with the bioassays. Further, the docking analysis revealed that morin shows strong affinity with Hwp-1 protein, which regulates the expression of biofilm and hyphal formation in and, thereby, abolishes fungal pathogenicity. Moreover, the anti-infective potential of morin against -associated systemic candidiasis is confirmed through an approach using biomedical model organism zebrafish (). The outcomes of the study demonstrate that the morin treatment effectively rescues animals from infections and extends their survival rate by inhibiting the internal colonization of . Histopathology analysis revealed extensive candidiasis-related pathognomonic changes in the gills, intestine, and kidney of animals infected with , while no extensive abnormalities were observed in morin-treated animals. The results evidenced that morin has the ability to protect against the pathognomonic effect and histopathological lesions caused by infection in zebrafish. Thus, the present study suggests that the utilization of morin could act as a potent therapeutic medication for instigated candidiasis.