Discovery of Short Peptides Exhibiting High Potency against Cryptococcus neoformans

Rapid increase in the emergence of resistance against existing antifungal drugs created a need to discover new structural classes of antifungal agents. In this study we describe the synthesis of a new structural class of short antifungal peptidomimetcis, their activity, and plausible mechanism of action. The results of the study show that peptides 11e and 11f are more potent than the control drug amphotericin B, with no cytotoxicity to human cancer cells and noncancerous mammalian kidney cells. The selectivity of peptides to fungus is depicted by transmission electron microscopy studies, and it revealed that 11e possibly disrupts the model membrane of the fungal pathogen.