Advances in antifungal development: Discovery of new drugs and drug repurposing

Authors: Kim, Jong Heon; CHENG, LUISA - Former ARS Employee; LAND, KIRKWOOD - University Of The Pacific

Submitted to: Complete Book
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/14/2022
Publication Date: 7/19/2022
Citation: Kim, J., Cheng, L.W., Land, K.M. 2022. Advances in antifungal development: Discovery of new drugs and drug repurposing. Complete Book. 282 p. https://doi.org/10.3390/books978-3-0365-4767-1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/books978-3-0365-4767-1

Interpretive Summary: This book summarizes the latest advances in antifungal development, with an emphasis on the discovery of new drugs, development of new intervention strategies, and drug repurposing. While fungal infections caused by yeast or filamentous fungal pathogens are persistent problems, current antifungal drugs or intervention methods exhibited limited efficacy in curing fungal diseases, mainly due to the narrow spectrum of the activity of conventional drugs, the stagnation in the development of new antifungal agents, increased incidences of fungal resistance to the conventional interventions, and toxicities caused by antifungal drugs. The thirteen published articles reported in this Special Issue provide an overview of current management approach of fungal diseases, highlighting measures that help develop new antifungal drugs and drug repurposing strategies. The articles underline further the new antifungal drugs from natural sources, design, synthesis and antifungal evaluation of newly synthesized compounds, nanotechnology systems for drug delivery, and drug repurposing for overcoming the multidrug-resistant fungal pathogens.

Technical Abstract: Infectious diseases caused by fungal pathogens, such as aspergillosis, candidiasis or cryptococcus, are recurring problems. Current antifungal interventions often exhibited very limited efficacy in treating fungal infections, partly because the spectrum of the activity of conventional systemic antifungal drugs is narrow while the development of new antifungal drugs has become stagnant; azole and polyene drugs were introduced before 1980, whereas the echinocandin drug CAS was approved for the clinical uses since 2000. Beside 5-flucytosine (5FC), only three classes of antifungal drugs are used in clinical settings, namely, azoles (fluconazole (FLU), itraconazole (ITR), voriconazole (VOR), posaconazole (POS), isavuconazole (ISA)), polyenes (amphotericin B (AMB)), and echinocandins (caspofungin (CAS), micafungin (MICA), anidulafungin (ANID)). Increased incidences of pathogen resistance to the conventional antifungal interventions also make fungal diseases a global human health concern. The research articles and reviews presented in this Special Issue book provide useful information and insight for the development of new antifungal drugs or intervention strategies. Identification of new, safe molecules, cellular targets, as well as elucidation of their antifungal mechanisms of action will further the effective control of fungal pathogens, especially those resistant to current therapeutic agents.