Editorial: Antifungal Drug Discovery: New Theories and New Therapies

Medically important fungal infections can be broadly classified into superficial surface infections and invasive mycoses (Samaranayake and MacFarlane, 1990; Roemer and Krysan, 2014). Superficial surface infections include mucosal candidiasis, dermatophyte infections whereas invasive mycoses affect sterile body sites such as bloodstream, central nervous system, kidney, lungs, and liver. Rise of fungal infections has caused a substantial morbidity and mortality globally (Vallabhaneni et al., 2016). It is reported that mortality among patients with invasive candidiasis is as high as 40%, even when patients receive antifungal therapy (Kullberg and Arendrup, 2015). Antifungal drugs are relatively difficult to develop compared to antibacterial drugs owing to the eukaryotic nature of the cells. Only a few classes of antifungal drugs, such as polyenes, azoles, echinocandins, allylamines, and flucytosine, are available to treat the myriad of fungal infections (Sanglard et al., 2009). Of the current antifungal agents, none have all the characteristics of an ideal agent (Wong et al., 2014). Antifungal resistance and host-related adverse reactions further limit the existing antifungal arsenal against fungal pathogens (Chandrasekar, 2011). Rising drug resistance is an inevitable problem, particularly for fluconazole, a drug of choice for candidiasis in AIDS patients (Siikala et al., 2010; Rautemaa and Ramage, 2011). Drug resistance has also been reported for recently introduced echinocandin antifungal agents (Seneviratne et al., 2008a; Ben-Ami et al., 2011; Clancy and Nguyen, 2011). Moreover, some fungal species are inherently resistance to existing antifungals (Sanglard; Kołaczkowska and Kołaczkowski, 2016). In addition, biofilm mode of fungal growth is known to be highly resistant to antifungal agents (Chandra et al., 2005; Seneviratne et al., 2008b). Hence, the development of more effective and safe antifungal agents is a top priority in the health care field. Therefore, this special research topic aimed to address the new theories and therapies pertaining to antifungal drug discovery, covering aspects of clinical relevance and novel antifungal strategies. Majority of the articles published under this research topic belongs to the Candida species, which is a group of major fungal pathogens in humans. Candida species are commensal fungi that inhabit various niches of the human body, including the oral cavity, gastrointestinal tract, vagina, and skin (Samaranayake and MacFarlane, 1990; Mayer et al., 2013). However, under certain circumstances, Candida can cause infections, or candidiasis, ranging from superficial mucous membrane infections to life-threatening systemic diseases. Candida albicans is the most prevalent fungal pathogen in lethal blood stream infections of humans (Seneviratne et al., 2011). …