Combating Fungal Infections

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xx

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2. Mould Infections: A Global Threat to Immunocompromised Patients

   • Ricardo Araujo, Cidália Pina-Vaz, Acácio Gonçalves Rodrigues

   Pages 1-19

3. Virulence and Pathogenicity of Fungal Pathogens with Special Reference to Candida albicans

   • Mohd Sajjad Ahmad Khan, Iqbal Ahmad, Farrukh Aqil, Mohd Owais, Mohd Shahid, Javed Musarrat

   Pages 21-45

4. Animal as Reservoir of Fungal Diseases (Zoonoses?)

   • Jose L. Blanco, Marta E. Garcia

   Pages 47-70

5. Fungi Associated with Eye Infections with Special Reference to Corneal Keratitis and Their Possible Reservoir

   • Shamim Ahmad, Mohd Sajjad Ahmad Khan, Fohad Mabood Hussain, Iqbal Ahmad

   Pages 71-97

6. Antifungal Drugs Mode of Action and Recent Development

   • Yoshikazu Sakagami

   Pages 99-107

7. Antifungal-Induced Nephrotoxicity in Pediatrics: A State of the Art

   • Vassilios Fanos, Marco Zaffanello, Laura Cuzzolin, Luigi Cataldi

   Pages 109-124

8. Antifungal Resistance: Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms

   • Ricardo Araujo, Ana Espinel-Ingroff

   Pages 125-145

9. Multidrug Resistance in Fungi: The Role of Pleiotropic Drug Resistance Genes

   • Sushma Sharma, K. Ganesan

   Pages 147-171

10. Laboratory Diagnosis of Fungal Infections: An Overview

    • Mohammad Shahid, Iqbal Ahmad, Abida Malik, Noor Jahan, Trivendra Tripathi

    Pages 173-211

11. Combinational Antifungal Therapy and Recent Trends in Drug Discovery

    • Iqbal Ahmad, Mohd Sajjad Ahmad Khan, Maryam Zahin, Mohd Owais, Mohd Shahid, Zafar Mehmood et al.

    Pages 213-240

12. Role of De-Escalation and Combination Therapy Strategies in the Management of Invasive Fungal Infection: A Multidisciplinary Point of View

    • Rafael Zaragoza, Javier Pemán, Miguel Salavert, Amparo Solé, Isidro Jarque, Emilio Monte et al.

    Pages 241-272

13. Challenges to the Management of Pulmonary Mycoses in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

    • Michael Koldehoff

    Pages 273-287

14. Aspartic Peptidase Inhibitors as Potential Bioactive Pharmacological Compounds Against Human Fungal Pathogens

    • André Luis Souza dos Santos

    Pages 289-325

15. Metabolic Pathways as Drug Targets: Targeting the Sulphur Assimilatory Pathways of Yeast and Fungi for Novel Drug Discovery

    • Anand Kumar Bachhawat, Amit Kumar Yadav

    Pages 327-346

16. Innate Immunity in Pathogenesis and Treatment of Dermatomycosis

    • Mohammad Owais, Mairaj Ahmed Ansari, Iqbal Ahmad, Qamar Zia, Gerald Pierard, Arun Chauhan

    Pages 347-371

17. Cytokine Therapy: Possible Tools in Management of Fungal Infection

    • Mohammad Shahid, Trivendra Tripathi, Nancy Khardori, Anwar Huq, Iqbal Ahmad

    Pages 373-396

18. Immunomodulators: Potential in Treatment of Systemic Fungal Infections

    • Qamar Zia, Nishat Fatima, Maroof Alam, Deepa Bisht, Prashant Yadav, Iqbal Ahmad et al.

    Pages 397-421

19. Fungal Vaccines: Recent Trends

    • Mohammad Shahid, Abida Malik, Noor Jahan, Hamdan Ibrahim AL-Mohammed, Ali Ibrahim Al-Sultan, Elsayed Aboulmagd

    Pages 423-448

20. Antifungal Activity of Medicinal Plant Extracts and Phytocompounds: A Review

    • Farrukh Aqil, Maryam Zahin, Iqbal Ahmad, Mohd Owais, Mohd Sajjad Ahmad Khan, Shyam S. Bansal et al.

    Pages 449-484

Fungi are eukaryotic microorganisms that are closely related to humans at cellular level. Human fungal pathogens belong to various classes of fungi, mainly zygo- cetes, ascomycetes, basidiomycetes, and deuteromycetes. In recent years, fungal infections have dramatically increased as a result of improved diagnosis, high frequency of catheterization, instrumentation, etc. However, the main cause remains the increasing number of immunosuppressed patients, mostly because of HIV infection and indiscriminate usage of antineoplastic and immunosuppressive agents, broad-spectrum antibiotics and prosthetic devices, and grafts in clinical settings. Presently available means of combating fungal infections are still weak and clumsy compared to control of bacterial infection. The present scenario of antifungal therapy is still based on two classes of antifungal drugs (polyenes and azoles). These drugs are effective in many cases, but display toxicity and limited spectrum of ef?cacy. The recent trend towards emergence of drug-resistant isolates in the clinic is an additional problem. In recent years, a few new antifungal drugs have entered the clinics, but they are expected to undergo same fate as the older antifungal drugs. The application of fungal genomics offers an unparalleled opportunity to develop novel antifungal drugs. However, it is too early to expect any novel drugs, as the antifungal drug discovery program is in the stage of infancy. Interestingly, several novel antifungal drug targets have been identi?ed and validated.

• cytokine
• diseases
• drug
• drug discovery
• drug resistance
• fungal infection
• infection
• infections
• innate immunity
• pathogenesis
• resistance
• stem cell transplantation
• toxicity
• transplantation
• vaccine

• Fac. Agricultural Sciences, Dept. Agricultural Microbiology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

  Iqbal Ahmad

• Dept. Biochemistry, Interdiciplinary Biotechnology Unit, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

  Mohammad Owais

• J. N. Medical College, Dept. Microbiology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

  Mohammed Shahid

• James Graham Brown Cancer Center, Louisville, USA

  Farrukh Aqil

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