Antifungal Drugs for Systemic Mycosis: An Overview of Mechanism of Action and Resistance

J.   S.   Hamdan; R.   C.   Hahn

Abstract

Invasive fungal infections are a frequent and important complication of modern medicine and remain important causes of morbidity and mortality, particularly in immunocompromised patients. In recent years, the existing antifungal armamentarium has been increased by new drugs and/ or improvement in older drugs. In this review, we summarise the current knowledge of the mechanisms of action and resistance of both new and old antifungal drugs available for the treatment of systemic mycosis. We present in addition, a summary of the results of our studies concerning the mechanism of action of antifungal agents and detection of in vitro resistance of some important human fungal pathogens.

Keywords: Systemic antifungal drugs, mechanism of action of antifungal drugs, resistance to antifungal drugs, amphotericin B, azoles, 5- Fluorocytosine, echinocandins, spectrum of action of antifungal drugs