DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2020.v08i02.061

Pages: 700-708

The present study was aimed to evaluate some of the virulence traits, viz., extracellular proteinase and phospholipase activities, of Candida albicans (n=130) and non-albicans Candida (n=60), such as C. tropicalis, C. parapsilosis, C. glabrata, C. guilliermondii, and C. krusei. The isolates of Candida species that were investigated in the current work were obtained from diverse clinical sources in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India. The correlation between the clinical sources of isolation and minimum inhibitory concentration of antifungal drugs was also determined. A screening for the production of extracellular proteinase and phospholipase enzymes was done using the Yeast Carbon Base–Bovine Serum Albumin medium and the Egg Yolk Plate method, respectively. The Minimal Inhibitory Concentration against the tested antifungal drugs was determined by the M–27A CLSI/NCCLS macrodilution method. Of the 190 Candida isolates, 150 (80%) were positive for extracellular proteinase and 141 (74.2%) for phospholipase secretion. A non-significant difference was observed for extracellular proteinase and phospholipase activities among C. albicans and non-albicans as determined by ANOVA (p > 0.05). The comparison of individual extracellular proteinase and phospholipase activities among the sources studied also demonstrated non-significant difference and almost comparable results using Dunnett's t-test and Tukey’s HSD Post Hoc test for the secretion of both the enzymes. A significant positive correlation between enzyme secretion and MIC of antifungal was demonstrated (p < 0.05), which suggested some role of extracellular enzymes among the Candida spp. in increasing the resistance against commonly used antifungal drugs.