Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Mechanisms of Drug Resistance in Fungi
and Their Significance in Biofilms
Rajendra Prasad, Abdul Haseeb Shah, and Sanjiveeni Dhamgaye
Abstract
Infections caused by opportunistic human fungal pathogens are very
common and have shown steady increase in recent years. The typical hosts,
which are prone to fungal infections, are those who possess suppressed immune
systems due to conditions such as HIV and transplantation surgery. Due to
prolonged chemotherapy, fungal cells also develop tolerance to the most commonly
used azole antifungals by employing several strategies. Interestingly, biofilms
which are routinely formed by fungal cells on medically implanted devices employ
different strategies to become highly resistant to antifungals. Apart from the known
tactics, newer approaches have revealed novel mechanisms and regulatory circuits
that are responsible for the development of multidrug resistance. Overcoming the
major clinical hurdle of fungal resistance demands a great deal of knowledge about
the function of fungal machinery that is used under drug stress.
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Introduction
Fungi are very diverse eukaryotic organisms, which can exist as unicellular or in
various multicellular forms. Phylogenetically, they are clustered with higher
eukaryotes and hence evolutionary are closer to mammalian systems. Notably,
the closeness of fungi to metazoans makes them ideal eukaryotic models; however,
their similar cellular machinery poses a challenge in combating their infections.
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