REVIEW article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Antibiotic Resistance and New Antimicrobial drugs
This article is part of the Research TopicTargeting Major Human Fungal Pathogens: Novel Insights into Virulence and Antifungal TherapiesView all 11 articles
Overcoming Antifungal Resistance in Candida albicans via RNA Interference: A Therapeutic Perspective
Provisionally accepted
- 1Vellore Institute of Technology Department of Integrative Biology, Vellore, India
- 2Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India
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Abstract Candida albicans remains a significant cause of nosocomial infections, with increasing antifungal resistance posing a global health challenge. Current therapies, including azoles, echinocandins, and polyenes, are increasingly limited by evolving resistance mechanisms such as efflux pump overexpression and ergosterol pathway mutations. This review explores the potential of RNA interference (RNAi) as a novel therapeutic strategy against drug-resistant C. albicans. While RNAi has shown efficacy in other fungal pathogens, its application in C. albicans is still in early stages. We discuss established antifungal targets, introduce emerging RNAi-based gene silencing approaches, and highlight potential molecular targets including ERG1, ERG6, ERG11, CDR1, CDR2, CLB2, and GSC1. RNAi offers a transformative route to overcome resistance at the transcriptional level, bypassing post-translational mutation-related failures of conventional drugs. With advances in small-interfering RNA (siRNA) design, chemical modifications, and nanoparticle delivery systems, RNA-based therapeutics may reshape the future of antifungal treatment.
Keywords: antifungal resistance, ergosterol biosynthesis, Gene Silencing, multidrug efflux pumps, nanoparticle delivery systems, RNA Interference
Received: 29 Jul 2025; Accepted: 03 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mundhe and Baskaran. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Reena Rajkumari Baskaran, b.reenarajkumari@vit.ac.in
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