title: Systemic Antifungal Agents: Current Status and Projected Future Developments.
abstract: By definition, an antifungal agent is a drug that selectively destroys fungal pathogens with minimal side effects to the host. Despite an increase in the prevalence of fungal infections particularly in immunocompromised patients, only a few classes of antifungal drugs are available for therapy, and they exhibit limited efficacy in the treatment of life-threatening infections. These drugs include polyenes, azoles, echinocandins, and nucleoside analogs. This chapter focuses on the currently available classes and representatives of systemic antifungal drugs in clinical use. We further discuss the unmet clinical needs in the antifungal research field; efforts in reformulation of available drugs such as Amphotericin B nanoparticles for oral drug delivery; development of new agents of known antifungal drug classes, such as albaconazole, SCY-078, and biafungin; and new drugs with novel targets for treatment of invasive fungal infections, including nikkomycin Z, sordarin derivatives, VT-1161 and VT-1129, F901318, VL-2397, and T-2307.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. S.Seyedmousavi@gmail.com.|Invasive Fungi Research Center (IFRC) & Department of Medical Mycology and Parasitology, School of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran. S.Seyedmousavi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Seyedmojtaba
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Seyedmousavi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Haleh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rafati
authors.affiliation: Division of Mycology, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Çukurova, Adana, Turkey.
authors.forename: Macit
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ilkit
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Mycology and Parasitology, School of Medicine, Invasive Fungi Research Center (IFRC), Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tolooe
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Hedayati
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verweij
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D055808:Drug Discovery; D025141:Drug Resistance, Fungal; D005658:Fungi / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D009181:Mycoses / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D000935:Antifungal Agents
keywords: Albaconazole; Amphotericin B nanoparticles; Antifungal agents; Biafungin-Nikkomycin Z; F901318; SCY-078; Sordarins; Systemic fungal infections; T-2307; VL-2397; VT-1129; VT-1161