Advances in the Antifungal Activity of Polymers in Fungi

Dear Colleagues,

The incidence of microbial infections in humans has been dramatically rising in recent decades. This is mainly due to the increasing number of patients suffering from immunosuppressive infections or diseases, such as AIDS or leukaemia or the immunosuppressive side effects of cancer chemotherapeutics. Furthermore, advanced, and sophisticated medical treatments that suppress the immune system of severely compromised patients prolong their lives at the cost of an elevated risk for microbial infections, even with low-virulence organisms. Similar effects are also present in agriculture; the abusive use of chemicals in intensive agriculture is increasing the number of highly resistant strains of fungal and bacterial pathogens. Pathogenic microorganisms becoming resistant to conventional drugs and antimicrobials are sharply increasing due to intrinsic primary resistance or the development of secondary resistance because of long-term antimicrobial therapies. Therefore, new and cost-effective strategies are needed to combat fungal attack, and novel antimycotics that target unique structures or functions of fungi are urgently needed. Natural polymers from non-well explored organisms like animals, plants, algae, fungi and other microorganisms may be an effective solution to manage infections caused by pathogens in humans, animals and plants. One of the main groups of polymers explored is chitin derivates. Chitosan is a linear polymer of beta-(1-4)-linked N-acetyl-2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose (acetylated, A-unit) and 2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose (deacetylated, D-units). It is generally obtained by partial deacetylation of chitin. Chitin is the second most abundant polymer in nature after cellulose. Chitosan also has great potential as an antifungal agent to treat diseases caused by human pathogenic fungi and inhibits the fungal growth of many other plant pathogenic fungi and mycoparasitic fungi.

This Special Issue will provide a forum for timely reflecting the latest progress in the field, including but not limited to the topics of microbial infections, plant pathogenic fungi, mycoparasitic fungi, antimycotics, natural polymers and chitin derivates, etc. Submissions can be in the form of either article or review to summarize the progress in a specific field.

Dr. Federico Lopez-Moya
Guest Editor

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• antimicrobials
• emerging diseases
• drug resistance
• chitosan
• Filamentous fungi
• yeast
• Candiada spp.