Saini Varsha, Safwan Sayed M, Mehta Devashish, Das Eric Evan, Bajaj Avinash
Laboratory of Nanotechnology and Chemical Biology, Regional Centre for Biotechnology, NCR Biotech Cluster, 3rd Milestone Faridabad-Gurgaon Expressway, Faridabad 121001, Haryana, India.
ACS Infect Dis. 2025 Jun 13;11(6):1271-1295. doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.4c00828. Epub 2025 May 13.
The escalating incidence of antimicrobial resistance to antifungal agents, alongside the emergence of drug-resistant fungal strains, constitutes a significant threat to a potential global fungal pandemic. In response, researchers are intensifying efforts to identify novel antifungal compounds through diverse methodologies. Emerging strategies focus on innovative therapeutic targets that may reduce the risk of resistance development while offering broad-spectrum efficacy against fungal infections. Additionally, these approaches present potential cost-effectiveness and accelerated development timelines. This review systematically categorizes a range of novel antifungal compounds, including antifungal peptides, cationic amphiphiles, small molecules, polymers, and repurposed drugs, based on their efficacy in inhibiting fungal growth and associated virulence factors. These compounds exhibit notable antimicrobial activity across in silico, in vitro, and in vivo systems against various pathogenic fungal strains, with several showing substantial promise for clinical application. Furthermore, the review highlights the limitations of standard antifungals and elucidates the mechanisms by which fungal strains develop resistance. This work aims to engage researchers in the distinctive field of fungal biology and foster the exploration of new antifungal strategies.
抗真菌药物的抗菌耐药性发生率不断上升，同时耐药真菌菌株不断出现，这对潜在的全球真菌大流行构成了重大威胁。作为回应，研究人员正在加大力度，通过各种方法来鉴定新型抗真菌化合物。新兴策略聚焦于创新的治疗靶点，这些靶点可能降低耐药性产生的风险，同时对真菌感染具有广谱疗效。此外，这些方法还具有潜在的成本效益和加速的开发时间表。本综述基于一系列新型抗真菌化合物在抑制真菌生长及相关毒力因子方面的功效，对其进行了系统分类，包括抗真菌肽、阳离子两亲物、小分子、聚合物和重新利用的药物。这些化合物在计算机模拟、体外和体内系统中对各种致病性真菌菌株均表现出显著的抗菌活性，其中有几种在临床应用方面显示出巨大潜力。此外，该综述还强调了标准抗真菌药物的局限性，并阐明了真菌菌株产生耐药性的机制。这项工作旨在让研究人员参与到真菌生物学这一独特领域，并促进对新抗真菌策略的探索。
