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Cells
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Fungal Infections and Resistance
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Fungal Infections and Resistance

A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant, Algae and Fungi Cell Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 4827

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Ulrike Binder

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Medical University Innsbruck, Schöpfstrasse 41, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Interests: fungal infections; opportunistic pathogens; microbiology; fungal biology; molecular mycology; fungal biotechnology; alternative infection models
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fungi affect human life in both positive and negative ways. Although their major role in the environment is saprobic decomposition or symbiotic interaction with plants, some act as pathogens to animals, humans, or plants. The improvements in modern medicine has led to more patients with high susceptibility to severe fungal infections. These mostly opportunistic infections are a deadly threat to immunosuppressed patients. In addition, the worldwide growing number of diabetic patients and those suffering from severe COVID-19 are further groups of patients at risk. Although significant progress in diagnosis has enabled faster species identification, limited antifungal regimens, changes in epidemiology, and the increasing appearance of resistance still result in unacceptably high mortality rates.

Secondly, fungi cause a significant economic and health burden by destroying crops and spoiling food by contamination or toxin production.

Therefore, our understanding of virulence traits and their molecular mechanisms of action, identification of antifungal targets, modification of antifungal targets and molecular mechanism of antifungal resistance needs to be enhanced in order to fight fungal infections.

This Special Issue is open to researchers in any related field who are willing to contribute significant research or relevant observations in antifungal resistance mechanisms, the identification of putative drug targets, changes in (resistance) epidemiology, fungal pathogenicity in animal and plants, or the development of therapeutic and preventive measures against fungal diseases in humans, animals, or plants.

Dr. Ulrike Binder
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cells is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • intrinsic antifungal resistance
  • acquired antifungal resistance
  • epidemiology of resistance
  • emerging fungal infections
  • COVID-19-associated fungal infections

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 1713 KiB  
Article
Prolonged Subculturing of Aspergillus fumigatus on Galleria Extract Agar Results in Altered Virulence and Sensitivity to Antifungal Agents
by Aaron Curtis, Kieran Walshe and Kevin Kavanagh
Cells 2023, 12(7), 1065; https://doi.org/10.3390/cells12071065 - 31 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1484
Abstract
Aspergillus fumigatus is an environmental saprophyte and opportunistic fungal pathogen of humans. The aim of the work presented here was to examine the effect of serially subculturing A. fumigatus on agar generated from Galleria mellonella larvae in order to characterize the alterations in [...] Read more.
Aspergillus fumigatus is an environmental saprophyte and opportunistic fungal pathogen of humans. The aim of the work presented here was to examine the effect of serially subculturing A. fumigatus on agar generated from Galleria mellonella larvae in order to characterize the alterations in the phenotypes that might occur. The passaged strains showed alterations in virulence, antifungal susceptibility, and in protein abundances that may indicate adaptation after 25 passages over 231 days on Galleria extract agar. Passaged strains demonstrated reduced virulence in G. mellonella larvae and increased tolerance to hemocyte-mediated killing, hydrogen peroxide, itraconazole, and amphotericin B. A label-free proteomic analysis of control and passaged A. fumigatus strains revealed a total of 3329 proteins, of which 1902 remained following filtration, and 32 proteins were statistically significant as well as differentially abundant. Proteins involved in the response to oxidative stress were altered in abundance in the passaged strain and included (S)-S-oxide reductase (+2.63-fold), developmental regulator FlbA (+2.27-fold), and histone H2A.Z (−1.82-fold). These results indicate that the prolonged subculturing of A. fumigatus on Galleria extract agar results in alterations in the susceptibility to antifungal agents and in the abundance of proteins associated with the oxidative stress response. The phenomenon may be a result of selection for survival in adverse conditions and highlight how A. fumigatus may adapt to tolerate the pulmonary immune response in cases of human infection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fungal Infections and Resistance)
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Review

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33 pages, 2457 KiB  
Review
Molecular Mechanisms Associated with Antifungal Resistance in Pathogenic Candida Species
by Karolina M. Czajka, Krishnan Venkataraman, Danielle Brabant-Kirwan, Stacey A. Santi, Chris Verschoor, Vasu D. Appanna, Ravi Singh, Deborah P. Saunders and Sujeenthar Tharmalingam
Cells 2023, 12(22), 2655; https://doi.org/10.3390/cells12222655 - 19 Nov 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3047
Abstract
Candidiasis is a highly pervasive infection posing major health risks, especially for immunocompromised populations. Pathogenic Candida species have evolved intrinsic and acquired resistance to a variety of antifungal medications. The primary goal of this literature review is to summarize the molecular mechanisms associated [...] Read more.
Candidiasis is a highly pervasive infection posing major health risks, especially for immunocompromised populations. Pathogenic Candida species have evolved intrinsic and acquired resistance to a variety of antifungal medications. The primary goal of this literature review is to summarize the molecular mechanisms associated with antifungal resistance in Candida species. Resistance can be conferred via gain-of-function mutations in target pathway genes or their transcriptional regulators. Therefore, an overview of the known gene mutations is presented for the following antifungals: azoles (fluconazole, voriconazole, posaconazole and itraconazole), echinocandins (caspofungin, anidulafungin and micafungin), polyenes (amphotericin B and nystatin) and 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC). The following mutation hot spots were identified: (1) ergosterol biosynthesis pathway mutations (ERG11 and UPC2), resulting in azole resistance; (2) overexpression of the efflux pumps, promoting azole resistance (transcription factor genes: tac1 and mrr1; transporter genes: CDR1, CDR2, MDR1, PDR16 and SNQ2); (3) cell wall biosynthesis mutations (FKS1, FKS2 and PDR1), conferring resistance to echinocandins; (4) mutations of nucleic acid synthesis/repair genes (FCY1, FCY2 and FUR1), resulting in 5-FC resistance; and (5) biofilm production, promoting general antifungal resistance. This review also provides a summary of standardized inhibitory breakpoints obtained from international guidelines for prominent Candida species. Notably, N. glabrata, P. kudriavzevii and C. auris demonstrate fluconazole resistance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fungal Infections and Resistance)
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