The treatment of fungal infections is challenging with high death rates reported among immunocompromised patients. The currently available antifungals suffer from poor bioavailability and solubility, pharmacokinetics, and drug resistance, with limited cellular uptake. The clinical pipeline of new antifungals is dry. The incorporation of antifungal drugs into polymer-based nanocarriers to form nanotherapeutics is a promising approach to enhance the therapeutic outcomes of the available antifungal drugs. This review summarizes different polymer-based nanotherapeutics strategies that have been explored for the delivery of antifungals, resulting in enhanced therapeutic outcomes, such as improved pharmacokinetics, targeted/sustained delivery, prolonged drug circulation, retention of the drugs at the localized site of action, and overcoming drug resistance when compared with the free antifungal drugs.
Keywords: antifungal drugs; azoles; drug-delivery systems; fluconazoles; nanocarriers; nanoparticles; nanotherapeutics.
Some fungi are more powerful than the drugs that should destroy them. These drugs are known as antifungal drugs. Some of these drugs do not dissolve well in water, some make the people sicker, and very small amounts reach the fungi inside the body after giving the drugs to sick people. To help make these drugs destroy the fungi in the body, they are put into very small molecules – known as polymers. However, how they work is not well known. This review discusses different polymer molecules, and what research has shown so far about how effective they are at delivering drugs to fight fungal infections.