Nectriatides with no antifungal activity bind to ergosterol and potentiate the antifungal activity of amphotericin B against Candida albicans

The study investigated fungal cyclotetrapeptide nectriatide and its linear derivatives (nectriatide-based compounds) that themselves lack antifungal activity, but potentiate amphotericin B against Candida albicans. Using fluorescein- and biotin-tagged probes, microscopy showed probe localization at the fungal cell membrane, and membrane lipid binding assays found the highest affinity for the fungal sterol ergosterol with no affinity for cholesterol; ergosterol binding was supported by a liposome disruption assay. LC-MS quantification demonstrated that NCTs increased amphotericin B binding to C. albicans, and the authors attribute potentiation to NCT-driven ergosterol targeting that localizes amphotericin B and enhances its fungicidal effect. This paper does not explicitly discuss endometriosis or adenomyosis; it was included in the corpus via a keyword match in the upstream search index.

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