Novel Targets and Antifungal Treatments against Pathogenic Fungi

A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Antimicrobial Agents and Resistance".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 2603

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
1. Department of Medical Mycology and Parasitology, Nantes University Hospital and EA1155 IICiMed, Nantes, France
2. Institut de Recherche en Santé2 (IRS2) University of Nantes, 44000 Nantes, France
Interests: microbiology; fungi; Leishmania; resistance; antifungal compounds; host-pathogen interaction; environment; One Health
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fungal infections have increased significantly in recent years. Among the major epidemiological facts, the emergence of new pathogens such as Candida auris which lead to intrahospital epidemic outbreaks as well as the appearance of the phenomenon of environmental resistance in Aspergillus fumigatus must be outlined. These different aspects show the need to make rapid progress on the clinical validation of drugs currently in the pipeline; above all, however, is the need to propose new compounds or alternative therapeutic targets for the development of original strategies for the management of potentially life-threatening fungal infections.

This Special Issue will cover the following:

  • Exploration of the activity of the new antifungal drugs
  • Identification of new therapeutic targets for fighting fungi
  • New chemical families with antifungal activity
  • Repurposing strategies

Prof. Dr. Patrice Le Pape
Guest Editor

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 9161 KiB  
Article
Is the C-Terminal Domain an Effective and Selective Target for the Design of Hsp90 Inhibitors against Candida Yeast?
by Célia Rouges, Mohammad Asad, Adèle D. Laurent, Pascal Marchand and Patrice Le Pape
Microorganisms 2023, 11(12), 2837; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11122837 - 22 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1487
Abstract
Improving the armamentarium to treat invasive candidiasis has become necessary to overcome drug resistance and the lack of alternative therapy. In the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans, the 90-kDa Heat-Shock Protein (Hsp90) has been described as a major regulator of virulence and resistance, [...] Read more.
Improving the armamentarium to treat invasive candidiasis has become necessary to overcome drug resistance and the lack of alternative therapy. In the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans, the 90-kDa Heat-Shock Protein (Hsp90) has been described as a major regulator of virulence and resistance, offering a promising target. Some human Hsp90 inhibitors have shown activity against Candida spp. in vitro, but host toxicity has limited their use as antifungal drugs. The conservation of Hsp90 across all species leads to selectivity issues. To assess the potential of Hsp90 as a druggable antifungal target, the activity of nine structurally unrelated Hsp90 inhibitors with different binding domains was evaluated against a panel of Candida clinical isolates. The Hsp90 sequences from human and yeast species were aligned. Despite the degree of similarity between human and yeast N-terminal domain residues, the in vitro activities measured for the inhibitors interacting with this domain were not reproducible against all Candida species. Moreover, the inhibitors binding to the C-terminal domain (CTD) did not show any antifungal activity, with the exception of one of them. Given the greater sequence divergence in this domain, the identification of selective CTD inhibitors of fungal Hsp90 could be a promising strategy for the development of innovative antifungal drugs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Targets and Antifungal Treatments against Pathogenic Fungi)
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21 pages, 3638 KiB  
Article
Identification, Characterization, and Production Optimization of 6-Methoxy-1H-Indole-2-Carboxylic Acid Antifungal Metabolite Produced by Bacillus toyonensis Isolate OQ071612
by Sayed E. El-Sayed, Neveen A. Abdelaziz, Amer Al Ali, Mohammad Y. Alshahrani, Khaled M. Aboshanab and Ghadir S. El-Housseiny
Microorganisms 2023, 11(12), 2835; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11122835 - 22 Nov 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 946
Abstract
Fungal infections currently pose a real threat to human lives. In the current study, soil bacterial isolates were screened for the production of antifungal compounds to combat human fungal pathogens. Notably, the bacterial F1 isolate exhibited antimycotic action towards the Candida albicans ATCC [...] Read more.
Fungal infections currently pose a real threat to human lives. In the current study, soil bacterial isolates were screened for the production of antifungal compounds to combat human fungal pathogens. Notably, the bacterial F1 isolate exhibited antimycotic action towards the Candida albicans ATCC 10231 and Aspergillus niger clinical isolates. By employing phenotypic and molecular techniques, we identified the F1 isolate as the Bacillus toyonensis isolate OQ071612. The purified extract showed stability within a pH range of 6–7 and at temperatures of up to 50 °C. It demonstrated potential antifungal activity in the presence of various surfactants, detergents, and enzymes. The purified extract was identified as 6-methoxy-1H-Indole-2-carboxylic acid using advanced spectroscopic techniques. To optimize the antifungal metabolite production, we utilized response surface methodology (RSM) with a face-centered central composite design, considering nutritional and environmental variables. The optimal conditions were as follows: starch (5 g/L), peptone (5 g/L), agitation rate of 150 rpm, pH 6, and 40 °C temperature. A confirmatory experiment validated the accuracy of the optimization process, resulting in an approximately 3.49-fold increase in production. This is the first documented report on the production and characterization of 6-methoxy-1H-Indole-2-carboxylic acid (MICA) antifungal metabolite from Bacillus toyonensis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Targets and Antifungal Treatments against Pathogenic Fungi)
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