皮膚真菌中紅色毛癬菌是一種感染人類的絲狀真菌，會引起角質組織的病變，是人類皮膚癬菌最常見的病原體，並引起人類超過90%皮膚真菌病。藉由核磁共振（NMR）分析，研究證明，表皮葡萄球菌，在人類皮膚上的共生菌，可以藉由甘油的發酵產生短鏈脂肪酸。為了證明表皮葡萄球菌是否會發酵影響紅色皮癬菌，將表皮葡萄球菌以及紅色皮癬菌生長在有甘油的培養基上，沒有甘油的作為對照組，發現表皮葡萄球菌與甘油培養具有明顯的抑制作用。此外，使用α乳糖化合物（ALM）對表皮葡萄球菌以及抗真菌藥物是否存在情況下對紅色毛癬菌進行處理。發現ALM能夠減少對紅色毛癬菌抗真菌藥的有效濃度，證明表皮葡萄球菌能誘導的ALM發酵來增強抗真菌活性，這些結果表明，表皮葡萄球菌共培養抑制紅色毛癬菌生長並驗證其皮膚共生菌可以進行發酵，以抵禦真菌感染的機制。這項研究結果未來可以用來治療紅色毛癬菌有關的皮膚疾病，包括頭癬，股癬和紅色毛癬菌感染的新策略。 ;Dermatophytes are a type of fungal infections on human nails. Trichophyton rubrum (T. rubrum) causes over 90% of dermatophytes in humans. By nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis, we demonstrated that Staphylococcus epidermidis, a commensal bacterium in the human skin microbiome, could mediate the fermentation of glycerol to produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). To examine if S. epidermidis fermentation affects the growth of T. rubrum, the S. epidermidis bacteria were grown on agar plates in the presence or absence of glycerol, a naturally occurring metabolite found in human skin, right before growing T. rubrum in the overlaid agar. Only S. epidermidis grown showed visible inhibitory effects against T. rubrum, In addition, T. rubrum was treated with antifungal terbinafine in the presence or absence of alpha-lactose monohydrate (ALM) and/or S. epidermidis. We found that ALM can reduce the effective concentration of terbinafine against T. rubrum, suggesting that S. epidermidis mediates ALM fermentation to enhance the antifungal activity of terbinafine. Our data infer that skin commensal bacteria may undergo fermentation to ward off the fungal infection. Results of this study may lead to new strategies for treatments of T. rubrum-associated skin diseases inducing tinea capitis, tinea corporis, and deep dermal T. rubrum infections.
