Fungal pathogens cause over a billion human infections annually, leading to more than 1.6 million deaths each year. The scarcity of available antifungal drugs intensifies the public health threat posed by human pathogenic fungal infections. Therefore there is a critical demand for novel, safe, and effective antifungal agents. Although chitinases are established as effective antifungal agents against phytopathogenic fungi, research on their activity against human pathogenic fungi is limited. The present study seeks to investigate the anti-inflammatory and antifungal activity of bacterial and fungal chitinase against human pathogenic fungi. The antifungal efficacy of bacterial chitinase from Streptomyces griseus, fungal chitinase from Trichoderma viride, and a combination of both was determined by calculating the inhibition percentage in fungal growth, indicated by the reduction in the dry mass of the fungi. Additionally, the anti-inflammatory activity of these chitinases was assessed by measuring the inhibition of albumin denaturation. Results revealed that chitinases exhibited greater antifungal activity compared to the standard. Notably, bacterial chitinase demonstrated higher effectiveness than fungal chitinase against Aspergillus fumigatus, while the bacterial and fungal chitinase had similar effects against different Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida species. The combination of bacterial and fungal chitinase demonstrated the highest antifungal activity against all tested fungi. Furthermore, the anti-inflammatory activity indicated that chitinases prevented 98% of albumin denaturation, marking the first study reporting the anti-inflammatory role of chitinases in preventing albumin denaturation. Additional in-vivo studies are necessary to explore the antifungal activity of chitinases against human pathogenic fungi and investigate the anti-inflammatory mechanisms of chitinase.

真菌病原体每年导致超过 10 亿人类感染，每年导致超过 160 万人死亡。可用抗真菌药物的稀缺加剧了人类病原真菌感染对公共卫生的威胁。因此，迫切需要新型、安全、有效的抗真菌药物。尽管几丁质酶被认为是对抗植物病原真菌的有效抗真菌剂，但对其对抗人类病原真菌活性的研究有限。本研究旨在研究细菌和真菌几丁质酶对人类病原真菌的抗炎和抗真菌活性。来自灰色链霉菌的细菌几丁质酶、来自绿色木霉的真菌几丁质酶以及两者的组合的抗真菌功效通过计算真菌生长的抑制百分比来确定，所述抑制百分比由真菌干质量的减少来表示。此外，通过测量白蛋白变性的抑制来评估这些几丁质酶的抗炎活性。结果显示，与标准品相比，几丁质酶表现出更强的抗真菌活性。值得注意的是，细菌几丁质酶对烟曲霉表现出比真菌几丁质酶更高的效果，而细菌和真菌几丁质酶对不同的新型隐球菌和念珠菌物种具有相似的效果。细菌和真菌几丁质酶的组合对所有测试的真菌表现出最高的抗真菌活性。此外，抗炎活性表明几丁质酶可防止 98% 的白蛋白变性，这标志着第一项研究报告了几丁质酶在防止白蛋白变性方面的抗炎作用。需要进行更多的体内研究来探索几丁质酶对人类病原真菌的抗真菌活性并研究几丁质酶的抗炎机制。