The Emerging Threat of Drug Resistance in Fungal Pathogens: Challenges and Management
A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382). This special issue belongs to the section "Fungi and Their Metabolites".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 June 2026 | Viewed by 43
Special Issue Editor
Interests: biomedical; drug discovery in antivirals; antifungals; metabolic syndrome
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Increasing reports of fungal drug resistance, combined with a limited number of approved antifungal drug classes, have raised serious concerns regarding the treatment of fungal diseases such as aspergillosis, candidiasis, cryptococcosis, pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia, and valley fever. Although most fungal pathogens affect immunocompromised individuals, species such as Cryptococcosis gattii and Candidozyma auris (formerly Candida auris) can also affect immunocompetent hosts.
Prolonged treatment and widespread use of fungicides in agriculture further contribute to the emergence of drug-resistant fungal strains, with several global organizations, including the World Health Organization, raising concern over antimicrobial drug resistance. Multidrug-resistant strains of C. auris have been reported in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Mechanistically, resistance can be classified into two major types: target-site resistance includes mutations in and overexpression of the target gene, whereas non-target-site resistance includes enhanced drug removal (overexpression of CYP enzymes), reduced drug uptake (overexpression of export pumps), or compensatory cellular mechanisms.
Effective antifungal management requires the discovery of agents targeting new molecular pathways, responsible agricultural fungicide use, evidence-based drug policies, increased funding for fungal research, expanded testing capabilities for resistance detection, and robust measures to prevent the spread of resistant strains.
Recognizing the critical importance of this issue, the journal Antibiotics has launched a Special Issue on fungal drug resistance. We invite submissions of original research articles, reviews, and methodological papers addressing any aspects of fungal drug resistance.
The topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Clinical case reports and outbreak investigations;
- Agricultural practices and resistance emergence;
- Genomic and molecular studies;
- Experimental models of induced resistance;
- Novel antifungal targets and drug discovery.
We look forward to receiving your valuable contributions, which will advance the understanding and management of fungal drug resistance.
Dr. Anil Mathew Tharappel
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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
- drug resistance
- antifungal
- fungal diseases
- aspergillosis
- cryptococcosis
- candidiasis
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