Vaccines against candidiasis: Status, challenges and emerging opportunity

Abstract

Candidiasis is a mycosis caused by opportunistic Candida species. The occurrence of fungal infections has considerably increased in the last few years primarily due to an increase in the number of immune-suppressed individuals. Alarming bloodstream infections due to Candida sp. are associated with a higher rate of morbidity and mortality, and are emerged as major healthcare concerns worldwide. Currently, chemotherapy is the sole available option for combating fungal diseases. Moreover, the emergence of resistance to these limited available anti-fungal drugs has further accentuated the concern and highlighted the need for early detection of fungal infections, identification of novel antifungal drug targets, and development of effective therapeutics and prophylactics. Thus, there is an increasing interest in developing safe and potent immune-based therapeutics to tackle fungal diseases. In this context, vaccine design and its development have a priority. Nonetheless, despite significant advances in immune and vaccine biology over time, a viable commercialized vaccine remains awaited against fungal infections. In this minireview, we enumerate various concerted efforts made till date towards the development of anti-Candida vaccines, an option with pan-fugal vaccine, vaccines in the clinical trial, challenges, and future opportunities.

Pol32, an accessory subunit of DNA polymerase delta, plays an essential role in genome stability and pathogenesis of Candida albicans

“… 16 No approved vaccine is available yet to mitigate any fungal infections. 17 Therefore, the identification of new drug targets and potential vaccine candidates are of paramount importance. Genomic diversity in the form of base substitutions, indels, ploidy variation, karyotypic changes, and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) is frequently observed in C. albicans .…”

Escherichia coli, but Not Staphylococcus aureus, Functions as a Chelating Agent That Exhibits Antifungal Activity against the Pathogenic Yeast Candida albicans

“…About 40–70% of healthy individuals carry C. albicans in their guts, where it survives asymptomatically. Since humans are not immune to C. albicans infections, there may be underlying mechanisms in the host that suppress the pathogenic traits of this opportunistic fungus; therefore, the fungus maintains a long-term mutualism with the host [ 4 , 6 ]. One assumption is that, as humans are colonized by a full array of microorganisms irrespective of either being in healthy or diseased states, neighboring microbes could influence the pathogenesis of C. albicans [ 32 , 33 ].…”

“…in humans, and the microbial dysbiosis and compromised immunity of the host are the two main causative factors of candidiasis [ 4 ]. It carries about a 40–60% mortality rate [ 5 , 6 ]. It represents the fourth and sixth most prevalent nosocomial infections in the United States and Europe, respectively.…”

Investigation on Phyto‐active Constituent of Clerodendrum paniculatum as Therapeutic Agent against Viral Diseases

“…The recent advancements in the field of computer-aided drug design (CADD) serve as an important and need of the time tool that can open new avenues in drug discovery and development processes. [6,10] CADD also serves as a cost and time effective tool. Two different strategies are being employed -the ligand-based and structured-based drug discovery along with numerous molecular modelling techniques that include molecular docking and molecular dynamic simulations followed by quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSARs) in association with artificial intelligence (AI).…”

“…The recent advancements in the field of computer‐aided drug design (CADD) serve as an important and need of the time tool that can open new avenues in drug discovery and development processes [6,10] . CADD also serves as a cost and time effective tool.…”