About this Research Topic
Recent epidemiology surveys indicated that the incidence of fatal fungal infections is continuously increasing worldwide, especially among immunocompromised patients. In spite of this worrying trend, the treatment of fungal infections is still a neglected problem. To mitigate this situation and brought this problem to the public attention, the World Health Organization published the first ever list of fungal priority pathogens list (WHO FPPL) in October 2022. Beside the prioritizing the fungal pathogens, this document clearly indicates action areas such as improved surveillance, targeted support for research and development and innovation, and enhanced public health interventions. This last one includes the prevention and control the infection and the emergence of antifungal drug resistance.
Nowadays, only four different types of antifungal drugs (polyenes, azoles, echinocandins, flucytosine) are available as first-line therapeutic agents to treat life-threatening invasive fungal infections (IFI). However, as a consequence of the increasing number of (multi)drug-resistant strains the effective treatment of IFIs is getting be more and more challenging. Therefore, there is an urgent demand for new antifungal compounds, and to develop new therapeutic approaches. Antifungal drug repurposing, combination antifungal therapy, development of fungal target-specific synthetic and semi-synthetic compounds, application of antifungal biomolecules, anti-infective agents, biologics, and vaccines may overcome this problem and provide new avenues for the effective treatment of IFIs with minimal potential for resistance development.
To correspond with the action area of WHO PPL focusing on the prevention and control the fungal infection and the drug-resistance, this Research Topic addresses any issue related to development of new antifungal compounds and therapeutic approaches. We encourage expert authors to contribute research articles, reviews or short communications that cover any above-mentioned topic and promote this action area of WHO PPL.
Nowadays, only four different types of antifungal drugs (polyenes, azoles, echinocandins, flucytosine) are available as first-line therapeutic agents to treat life-threatening invasive fungal infections (IFI). However, as a consequence of the increasing number of (multi)drug-resistant strains the effective treatment of IFIs is getting be more and more challenging. Therefore, there is an urgent demand for new antifungal compounds, and to develop new therapeutic approaches. Antifungal drug repurposing, combination antifungal therapy, development of fungal target-specific synthetic and semi-synthetic compounds, application of antifungal biomolecules, anti-infective agents, biologics, and vaccines may overcome this problem and provide new avenues for the effective treatment of IFIs with minimal potential for resistance development.
To correspond with the action area of WHO PPL focusing on the prevention and control the fungal infection and the drug-resistance, this Research Topic addresses any issue related to development of new antifungal compounds and therapeutic approaches. We encourage expert authors to contribute research articles, reviews or short communications that cover any above-mentioned topic and promote this action area of WHO PPL.
Keywords: fungal infection, antifungal drug, antifungal therapy, (multi)drug resistance, drug discovery
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