Calcium homeostasis plays important roles in the internalization and activities of the small synthetic antifungal peptide PAF26

Abstract

Fungal infections today are among the most difficult diseases to manage in humans (Kohler et al., 2014). Fungi collectively kill over 1.5 million people annually which is more than malaria and similar to the death toll from tuberculosis (Brown et al., 2012; Bongomin et al., 2017). Increasing resistance to the limited arsenal of antifungal drugs is a serious concern, especially for Candida and Aspergillus infections, for which the therapeutic options are limited. Overall, there is an urgent need to develop new antifungal strategies to tackle fungal infections (Denning and Bromley, 2015; Nicola et al., 2019).

Antimicrobial resistance

“…Activation of BceS histidine kinases in the Gram‐positive Bacillus subtilis , for example, signals to ensure that resistance transporters are produced in a drug dose‐dependent manner with minimum energy costs (Koh et al, 2021). Furthermore, Ca 2+ signalling seems to be key in mediating Neurospora crassa resistance to the antifungal peptide PAF26 (Alexander et al, 2020). The understanding of such mechanisms provides the opportunity to identify putative inhibitors either against sensor kinases such as histidine kinases in B. subtilillis or Ca 2+ transporters in fungi to abrogate AMR in these organisms.…”