New Approaches for Development Needed.

• Position: ANTIFUNGAL DRUGS

The last drug designed to more effectively treat dangerous systemic fungal infections, most often affecting immunocompromised patients, was developed more than 20 years ago. Now an interdisciplinary team of investigators from Stony Brook (N.Y.) University believes it has identified what may be a new approach toward developing another class of better antifungal agents.

By inhibiting an enzyme called sterylglucosidase 1 (Sgh) in a model of Cryptococcosis, the researchers found infection did not spread.

Current antifungals have many drawbacks for patients, including high toxicity and many drug interactions, so the need for new antifungals remains high. Cryptococcus neoformans is a fungal pathogen that, upon entering the lung and moving into the bloodstream, causes life-threatening meningoencephalitis in susceptible patients.

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a sharp lens on the dangers of infections that spread, particularly to the lungs. Cancer patients and other immunocompromised individuals with chronic conditions are much more susceptible to systemic fungal infections such as Cryptococcosis.

"Essentially, by...