About this Research Topic
Fungal pathogens as a group of eukaryotic microorganisms with various shared features with human cells are able to cause a divergent set of diseases ranging from superficial to systemic infections. Generally, treatment of fungal infections is challenging as a limited number of antifungal drugs are available. Emerging of resistance among fungi and its increasing trend in recent decades along with the distribution of emerging drug-resistant pathogens like Candida auris make the treatment more complicated. As the development of new effective antifungal drugs is a very expensive and time-consuming process, looking for alternative and easy-to-reach approaches is necessary. Drug combination, drug repurposing, using compounds of natural origin like medicinal plants, nanomaterials, etc. are potential approaches for finding agents with antifungal activity. Although several studies in this area have been done with promising results, there is still a long way to reach the goal of applying these novel approaches.
The aim of this Research Topic is to present a set of studies in which alternative approaches to antifungal drugs have successfully been used, especially against drug-resistant fungi. By doing so, a list of approaches with promising results against specific fungi would be available. Each effective approach could be further used against other clinically important fungi, and accordingly, these data could open new gates for future research in the field of drug discovery.
• In vitro combination of antifungal drugs with antifungal or non-antifungal drugs
• Repurposing of non-antifungal drugs as antifungal agents
• Evaluation of various nanomaterials for their antifungal activity
• Evaluation of various agents of natural origin (medicinal plants etc.) against fungi (crude compound e.g., crude essential oils are not acceptable, and the active compound should be clearly characterized)
• Evaluation of chemically synthesized derivatives of known antifungals to improve their antifungal activity
The aim of this Research Topic is to present a set of studies in which alternative approaches to antifungal drugs have successfully been used, especially against drug-resistant fungi. By doing so, a list of approaches with promising results against specific fungi would be available. Each effective approach could be further used against other clinically important fungi, and accordingly, these data could open new gates for future research in the field of drug discovery.
• In vitro combination of antifungal drugs with antifungal or non-antifungal drugs
• Repurposing of non-antifungal drugs as antifungal agents
• Evaluation of various nanomaterials for their antifungal activity
• Evaluation of various agents of natural origin (medicinal plants etc.) against fungi (crude compound e.g., crude essential oils are not acceptable, and the active compound should be clearly characterized)
• Evaluation of chemically synthesized derivatives of known antifungals to improve their antifungal activity
Keywords: Drug repurposing, drug combination, nanomaterial, natural products, drug analogues, fungal pathogens
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