Difficulties in discovering antifungal drugs

  • The close evolutionary relationship between humans, animals, and fungi makes it difficult to find drugs that kill fungi without having toxic effects on humans or animals.
  • Fungi are quite diverse. This makes it challenging to identify drugs that will inhibit all fungi.
  • Fungi have multiple mechanisms for developing resistance to drugs, such as proteins that pump the drugs out of their cells.

From: One Health: Fungal Pathogens of Humans, Animals, and Plants

Cover of One Health: Fungal Pathogens of Humans, Animals, and Plants
One Health: Fungal Pathogens of Humans, Animals, and Plants: Report on an American Academy of Microbiology Colloquium held in Washington, DC, on October 18, 2017.
Washington (DC): American Society for Microbiology; 2019.
Copyright 2019 American Academy of Microbiology.

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