Antifungal Activity of Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Fermented Food against Candida albicans: in vitro Study

Candida albicans induces different kinds of infections classified as superficial, locally invasive and systemic infections. The present study aimed to estimate the antifungal activities of Lactic acid bacterial (LAB) extract against 30 different resistant clinical isolates of C. albicans. LAB strains were isolated from 100 fermented food samples and C. albicans was isolated from Egyptian private hospitals. Cell-free supernatants of different LAB strains were then evaluated for their antagonistic activity against C. albicans isolates using the agar well diffusion method. Determination of the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of LAB extracts was then carried out against C. albicans. Moreover, the effect of LAB extracts on the formation of C. albicans biofilm was assessed and expressed as percentage. The obtained results indicated that all LAB extracts exerted growth inhibitory effects on the vegetative forms of C. albicans as well as their biofilm formation. Also, Lactobacillus plantarum was the most powerful isolate where the highest diameter of inhibition zone was 22.80 mm with MIC value of 62.67% while the average percentage of biofilm inhibition was 67.33%. The use of a probiotic may offer an alternative or complementary therapeutic choice in the treatment of Candidiasis and could be effective against drug resistant strains.