Antifungal drug development: the identification of new targets.
With the increasing prevalence of life-threatening systemic fungal infections in the human population, there is a need to develop new, more-effective antifungal agents. This, in turn, will depend upon the identification and exploitation of new antifungal targets--aspects of fungal cytology, metabolism and gene expression which are important for fungal pathogenesis, but which have no mammalian host counterpart. Such new targets have been identified through a combination of classical genetic, cytological and biochemical studies and are reviewed here, as is the potential for applying recombinant DNA techniques as a means of confirming the role of the identified gene products in pathogenesis.
Biological Laboratory, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.
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Tuite
D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000187:drug effects; D004274:DNA, Recombinant; D005658:Fungi / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology; D009181:Mycoses / Q000209:etiology; D014774:Virulence
D000935:Antifungal Agents; D004274:DNA, Recombinant