Figure 3.

Effects of phendione and its metal complexes on THP-1 viability and the ability of macrophages to kill P. verrucosa conidia. (A) Macrophages (1 × 10⁶) were incubated in the absence (CTRL, control) or in the presence of phendione and its silver(I) and copper(II) complexes (0.03–5 mg/L) for 20 h. After treatment, macrophage viability was determined using the MTT assay. (B) THP-1 cells were infected with P. verrucosa conidia in a ratio of 1:10 (macrophage:fungi) for 1 h. Then, non-adherent fungi were removed and the microplates incubated for an additional 20 h with non-cytotoxic concentrations [mg/L (μM)] of phendione [1.25 (6)], [Ag(phendione)₂]⁺ [1.25 (2)], and [Cu(phendione)₃]²⁺ [0.31 (0.31)]. Then, macrophages were washed and lysed with sterile cold water, and the suspensions were plated onto sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA) medium to count the number of colony forming units (CFU). The values represent the mean SD of three independent experiments performed in triplicate. Asterisks indicate values of p ≤ 0.05.