title: Immunotherapy of Fungal Infections.
abstract: Fungal organisms are ubiquitous in the environment. Pathogenic fungi, although relatively few in the whole gamut of microbial pathogens, are able to cause disease with varying degrees of severity in individuals with normal or impaired immunity. The disease state is an outcome of the fungal pathogen's interactions with the host immunity, and therefore, it stands to reason that deep/invasive fungal diseases be amenable to immunotherapy. Therefore, antifungal immunotherapy continues to be attractive as an adjunct to the currently available antifungal chemotherapy options for a number of reasons, including the fact that existing antifungal drugs, albeit largely effective, are not without limitations, and that morbidity and mortality associated with invasive mycoses are still unacceptably high. For several decades, intense basic research efforts have been directed at development of fungal immunotherapies. Nevertheless, this approach suffers from a severe bench-bedside disconnect owing to several reasons: the chemical and biological peculiarities of the fungal antigens, the complexities of host-pathogen interactions, an under-appreciation of the fungal disease landscape, the requirement of considerable financial investment to bring these therapies to clinical use, as well as practical problems associated with immunizations. In this general, non-exhaustive review, we summarize the features of ongoing research efforts directed towards devising safe and effective immunotherapeutic options for mycotic diseases, encompassing work on antifungal vaccines, adoptive cell transfers, cytokines, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), and other agents.
authors.affiliation: a Division of Infectious Diseases , Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine , Baltimore , MD , USA , and.
authors.forename: Kausik
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Datta
authors.affiliation: b Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences and the Sharjah Institute for Medical Research , University of Sharjah , Sharjah , UAE.
authors.forename: Mawieh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hamad
mesh_terms: D019264:Adoptive Transfer; D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016207:Cytokines / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D005657:Fungal Vaccines; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D009181:Mycoses / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D000935:Antifungal Agents; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D016207:Cytokines; D005657:Fungal Vaccines
keywords: Antifungal; antigen; fungal infection; fungal vaccine; immunotherapy; invasive mycosis