New Approaches to the Treatment and Prevention of Fungal Infections
A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382). This special issue belongs to the section "Antibiotic Therapy in Infectious Diseases".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 1
Special Issue Editor
2. ALiCE—Associate Laboratory in Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, LEPABE—Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
Interests: biofilms; Candida infections; AMR; polymicrobial infections; alternative treatments; natural compounds; oral infections
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Fungal infections represent one of the most pressing yet understudied global health challenges of our time, causing approximately 3.8 million deaths annually, with immunocompromised populations particularly at risk. Despite this staggering mortality rate, which rivals those of tuberculosis and HIV, fungal diseases remain largely overlooked in public health discourse and research funding. There is a “critical lack” of medicines and diagnostic tools for invasive fungal diseases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which released its first analysis of antifungals on Tuesday. Common infections such as candida (which causes oral and vaginal thrush) are growing increasingly resistant to treatment, but there are not enough medicines in the pipeline to combat this. The emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens such as Candida auris and azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus strains poses an immediate threat to global health security. The antifungal drug pipeline has remained remarkably stagnant for three decades, primarily due to the significant challenges inherent in developing safe and effective antifungal agents. Current antifungal drugs primarily target the fungal cell membrane, DNA synthesis, or cell wall, limiting treatment efficacy and promoting resistance. This narrow targeting approach has several critical limitations, such as resistance to antifungals or limited diagnostic capabilities. We are launching this Special Issue at a critical time: the limitations of our current antifungal arsenal have become increasingly apparent, and promising new therapeutic paradigms are beginning to show potential.
We welcome the submission of reviews and research articles that explore these topics and other significant issues related to fungal infections.
Dr. Célia Fortuna Rodrigues
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antibiotics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- Biofilms
- AMR
- antifungals
- infections
- alterntive treatment
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