title: Tackling Fungal Resistance by Biofilm Inhibitors.
abstract: The high incidence and mortality of invasive fungal infections and serious drug resistance have become a global public health issue. The ability of fungal cells to form biofilms is an important reason for the emergence of severe resistance to most clinically available antifungal agents. Targeting fungal biofilm formation by small molecules represents a promising new strategy for the development of novel antifungal agents. This perspective will provide a comprehensive review of fungal biofilm inhibitors. In particular, discovery strategies, chemical structures, antibiofilm/antifungal activities, and structure-activity relationship studies will be discussed. Development of inhibitors to treat biofilm-related resistant fungal infections is a new yet clinically unexploited paradigm, and there is still a long way to go to clinical application. Better understanding of fungal biofilms in combination with systematic drug discovery efforts will pave the way for potential clinical applications.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University , 325 Guohe Road, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shanchao
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University , 325 Guohe Road, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University , 325 Guohe Road, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University , 325 Guohe Road, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Guoqiang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University , 325 Guohe Road, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chunquan
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9489-804X
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sheng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018441:Biofilms / Q000187:drug effects*; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods; D025141:Drug Resistance, Fungal; D005658:Fungi / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009181:Mycoses / Q000188:drug therapy*; D054852:Small Molecule Libraries / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D000935:Antifungal Agents; D054852:Small Molecule Libraries