Antimycotics with a novel mode of action

在过去的25年中，与真菌感染相关的死亡率稳步上升，主要是由于免疫功能低下个体数量的增加。对于具有免疫能力的个体，由作为通常居住在人体内的植物群的一部分或在环境中遇到的许多真菌物种引起的感染很少危及生命。然而，对于免疫功能低下的患者，侵袭性真菌感染已成为发病率和死亡率的重要原因。全世界数百万人受到这种危险感染的威胁。艾滋病患者、接受化疗的癌症患者、囊性纤维化患者、干细胞移植患者、器官移植接受者都有很高的风险患上威胁生命的真菌感染。目前的研究计划旨在发现新的抗真菌药物，以帮助解决这一严重的健康问题。一种对真菌代谢特异的酶已经被鉴定出来，相关研究人员已经设计出了它的特异性抑制剂，并已显示出具有抗真菌活性。 该项目涉及与加拿大一家制药公司传染病部门的科学家的密切合作，他们的参与大大增强了这项工作最终将产生一种实用的新型抗霉菌药物的前景，并确保参与该项目的年轻科学家将在高度跨学科的环境中接受培训。这可能导致降低医疗保健成本，并可能为参与的加拿大公司在大型抗感染药物市场创造独特的利基市场。

In the past 25 years the incidence of fatality associated with fungal infections has increased steadily, largely as a consequence of an increase in the number of immunocompromised individuals. For immunocompetent individuals infections caused by the many fungal species which are part of the flora normally inhabiting the human body or which are encountered in the environment are very seldom life-threatening. For immunocompromised patients, however, invasive fungal infections have become important causes of morbidity and mortality. Millions of people worldwide are threatened by such dangerous infections. AIDS patients, cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, cystic fibrosis patients, stem cell transplant patients, organ transplan recipients are all at high risk of acquiring life-threatening fungal infections.The present research project seeks to discover new antimycotics which will help to combat this serious health problem. An enzyme specific to fungal metabolism has been identified and specific inhibitors of it have already been designed by the researchers involved and have been shown to possess antifungal activity.   This project involves a close collaboration with the scientists of the Infectious Diseases unit of a Canadian pharmaceutical company and their involvement strongly enhances the prospects that a practical novel antimycotic pharmaceutical will eventually emerge from this work and ensures that the young scientists to be involved in this project will receive training in a highly interdisciplinary environment.This project has potential for improving the health of immunocompromised individuals, which could lead to decreased health care costs, and could create a unique niche in the large anti-infective pharmaceutical market for the participating Canadian company.