Combating increased antifungal drug resistance in Cryptococcus, what should we do in the future?

Hengyu Deng; Jialin Song; Yemei Huang; Chen Yang; Xuelei Zang; Yangyu Zhou; Hongli Li; Bin Dai; Xinying Xue

doi:10.3724/abbs.2023011

Combating increased antifungal drug resistance in Cryptococcus, what should we do in the future?

Acta Biochim Biophys Sin (Shanghai). 2023 Feb 22;55(4):540-547. doi: 10.3724/abbs.2023011.

Authors

Hengyu Deng¹, Jialin Song¹, Yemei Huang², Chen Yang³, Xuelei Zang², Yangyu Zhou², Hongli Li¹, Bin Dai², Xinying Xue^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Affiliated Hospital of Weifang Medical University, School of Clinical Medicine, Weifang Medical University, Weifang 261053, China.
² Department of Respiratory and Critical Care, Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Capital Medical University; Peking University Ninth School of Clinical Medicine, Beijing 100089, China.
³ Department of Laboratory Medicine, the First Medical Centre, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.

Abstract

Few therapeutic drugs and increased drug resistance have aggravated the current treatment difficulties of Cryptococcus in recent years. To better understand the antifungal drug resistance mechanism and treatment strategy of cryptococcosis. In this review, by combining the fundamental features of Cryptococcus reproduction leading to changes in its genome, we review recent research into the mechanism of four current anti-cryptococcal agents, coupled with new therapeutic strategies and the application of advanced technologies WGS and CRISPR-Cas9 in this field, hoping to provide a broad idea for the future clinical therapy of cryptococcosis.

Keywords: anti-cryptococcal agent; drug resistance mechanism; drug target.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Antifungal Agents / pharmacology
Antifungal Agents / therapeutic use
Cryptococcosis* / drug therapy
Cryptococcosis* / microbiology
Cryptococcus* / genetics
Drug Resistance, Fungal / genetics
Humans

Substances

Antifungal Agents

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the grants from the National Key Research and Development Program (No. 2021YFC2302100), the National Key Research and Development Program (No. 2020YFC2005404), the Beijing Key Clinical Specialty Project (No. 2020ZDZK1), the National Capacity Building Project for Multidisciplinary Diagnosis and Treatment of Major Diseases (No. 2019YLFW), the Capital Health Development Scientific Research Unit Matching Fund (No. 2020-2Z-2086), and the “Sailing” Plan for Clinical Technology Innovation Project in Beijing (No. XMLX202115).