Searching for new-type antifungal drugs (an outline for possible new strategies).
New approaches for treatment of invasive fungal infections are necessary to cope with emerging resistant fungal pathogens of humans. In this paper, three different strategies are presented and evaluated to find new-type antifungal drugs and their targets. While experimental data obtained with potent chitinase inhibitors, e.g. allosamidin, and small-size antifungal proteins of fungal origin are encouraging more efforts are needed to verify and exploit the possible involvement of intracellular thiols, e.g. glutathione, and their metabolic enzymes in the pathogenesis of mycoses caused by dimorphic fungi. Chitinase inhibitors seem to hinder the cell separation of yeasts and the fragmentation of filamentous fungi quite effectively and, hence, they may be implicated in future therapies of systemic mycoses. In addition, small-size antifungal proteins possessing a broad inhibition spectrum may also provide us with promising new agents for the treatment of different kinds of (e.g. cutaneous) fungal infections.
Pócsi
I
I
Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Debrecen, P.O. Box 63, H-4010 Debrecen, Hungary.
Sámi
L
L
Leiter
E
E
Majoros
L
L
Szabó
B
B
Emri
T
T
Pusztahelyi
T
T
D000117:Acetylglucosamine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology; D002688:Chitinases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors; D015195:Drug Design; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000494:pharmacology; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000494:pharmacology; D005658:Fungi / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005978:Glutathione / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010408:Penicillium chrysogenum / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014312:Trisaccharides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology
D000935:Antifungal Agents; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D014312:Trisaccharides; C054851:allosamidin; D002688:Chitinases; D005978:Glutathione; D000117:Acetylglucosamine