Arce co-investigating natural phenolic compounds against oral candidiasis

Associate Professor Roger Arce, DDS, MS, PhD, of UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry is serving as co-investigator on a $2.3 million, multi-institutional federal grant (R01 AI181635) from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health to develop natural phenolic compounds for the management of oral candidiasis.

Arce is collaborating with Eleftherios Mylonakis, MD, PhD, principal investigator and the Charles and Anne Duncan Presidential Distinguished Chair in the Department of Medicine at Houston Methodist, for the R01 project, titled “Natural Phenolic Compounds against Oral Candidiasis (OC).”

Candida spp. is the most common cause of invasive fungal infections among individuals living with HIV, and oropharyngeal candidiasis is the most frequent opportunistic infection in HIV-infected individuals.

Mylonakis has found that caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) and ellagic acid (EA) are both active against Candida spp., including C. auris resistant strains, and active in preclinical models.

Mylonakis and Arce hypothesize that the combination of CAPE and EA could provide an ideal natural treatment against oral candidiasis with direct antifungal activity and activity against resistant strains, efficacy against filaments and biofilms, and immunomodulatory activity through the production of antimicrobial peptides and chemokines.

“We propose further developing the use of hydrogels loaded with the two natural compounds with activity against Candida spp.,” Arce said. “These studies have the potential to develop local treatments that will deliver natural compounds to prevent and treat oral candidiasis.”

The study aims to advance the development of CAPE and EA as natural phenolic compounds that can be used as clinical antifungal agents in the management of oral candidiasis.

“This bench-to-bedside translational project will start optimizing hydrogels in in vivo models of candidiasis, then move towards clinical treatment in the oral mucosa of volunteers living with HIV and dealing with candidiasis, as well as potentially treating other oral diseases,” Arce said.

The R01 grant will be awarded over a five-year span through July 2029.