Emerging Threats in Antifungal-Resistant Fungal Pathogens
نویسنده
چکیده
The use of antifungal drugs in the therapy of fungal diseases can lead to the development of antifungal resistance. Resistance has been described for virtually all antifungal agents in diverse pathogens, including Candida and Aspergillus species. The majority of resistance mechanisms have also been elucidated at the molecular level in these pathogens. Drug resistance genes and genome mutations have been identified. Therapeutic choices are limited for the control of fungal diseases, and it is tempting to combine several drugs to achieve better therapeutic efficacy. In the recent years, several novel resistance patterns have been observed, including antifungal resistance originating from environmental sources in Aspergillus fumigatus and the emergence of simultaneous resistance to different antifungal classes (multidrug resistance) in different Candida species. This review will summarize these current trends.
منابع مشابه
Ploidy dynamics and evolvability in fungi
Rapid responses to acute stresses are essential for stress survival and are critical to the ability of fungal pathogens to adapt to new environments or hosts. The rapid emergence of drug resistance is used as a model for how fungi adapt and survive stress conditions that inhibit the growth of progenitor cells. Aneuploidy and loss of heterozygosity (LOH), which are large-scale genome shifts invo...
متن کاملInvasive Fungal Infections in Patients with Hematological Malignancies: Emergence of Resistant Pathogens and New Antifungal Therapies
Invasive fungal infections caused by drug-resistant organisms are an emerging threat to heavily immunosuppressed patients with hematological malignancies. Modern early antifungal treatment strategies, such as prophylaxis and empirical and preemptive therapy, result in long-term exposure to antifungal agents, which is a major driving force for the development of resistance. The extended use of c...
متن کاملTreatment of fungal disease in the setting of neutropenia.
Invasive fungal infections are important causes of morbidity and attributable mortality in neutropenic patients with hematological malignancies, myelodysplasia, and aplastic anemia. Successful risk-based strategies can be implemented for prophylaxis, empirical therapy, and preemptive therapy for the prevention and early treatment of invasive fungal infections in neutropenic hosts. The use of ec...
متن کاملAntifungal peptides: novel therapeutic compounds against emerging pathogens.
The need for safe and effective antifungal agents increases in parallel with the expanding number of immunocompromised patients at risk for invasive fungal infections. The emergence of fungal pathogens resistant to current therapies further compounds the dearth of antifungal agents. Currently available antifungal compounds act on targets also found in mammalian cells (34), which may result in t...
متن کاملCoping with Stress and the Emergence of Multidrug Resistance in Fungi
The incidence of invasive fungal infections poses a serious global health threat, killing nearly 1.4 million people a year—a number comparable to deaths from tuberculosis. Factors that contribute to this disease burden and high mortality include insufficient diagnostics and treatment, and the increasing numbers of individuals with immune system defects who are particularly susceptible to fungal...
متن کامل