Human Fungal Pathogens: Emerging Threats, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Innovations and Global Impacts

Dear Colleagues,

Infectious diseases have an important impact on public health. For centuries, they have been identified as the main causes of death and sequelae and therefore still present growing challenges for health security and human progress. Over the past few decades, infectious diseases have been significantly correlated with socioeconomic, environmental, and ecological factors. The risk of the growth of neglected, emerging, and re-emerging fungal pathogens is an even greater threat. Likewise, a close relationship and changes between human, animal, and environmental health ("One Health" concept) significantly influence the transmission and distribution of pathogens. Studies of these infections reveal the evolutionary properties of pathogens and their dynamic relationships, quickly adapting to new hosts due to high rates of multiplication, mutation, and selection. Understanding the processes that lead to the emergence of new pathogens can help manage emerging epidemics. The growing risk of co-infections is a major threat to patient’s lives and impacts the health systems.  The particular combination of virulence factors, including microbial biofilms, may have a species-specific effect that needs to be addressed at the molecular level. Molecular tools help in designing newer therapies based on interferences with biofilm formation and thus countering clinical episodes of resistance. Therefore, as the emergence of an infection is a complex and multifactorial issue, a multidisciplinary approach is required.

This is why the World Health Organization (WHO) recently launched a priority list of fungal pathogens to focus research on these agents. Thus, there is a need for new tools for investigating pathogens, to study the host-parasite relationships, regarding their virulence, resistance development, and identification. For this purpose, new molecular technologies have launched a new era in pathogen surveillance, using new-generation sequencing techniques, implementation of mass spectrometry in microbiology, metagenomic analysis, and determination of antimicrobial resistance. Along the same lines, the introduction of new antisense RNA and CRISPR methodologies has made it possible to know not only the functionality of several molecules that participate in host-pathogen interactions but also to identify new targets to design antimicrobial strategies.

Given recent developments in this field, the purpose of this Topic Board is to highlight aspects related to the novel concepts in diagnostic, molecular, epidemiology, treatment, and pathogenesis using different approaches in fungal pathogens. Then, the nature and scope of emerging and re-emerging microbial threats and consider methods for their control, as well as the dynamic interactions between rapidly evolving infectious agents and changes in the environment and host behavior that provide such agents with new favorable ecological niches will be evaluated in this special issue.

This topic may be published in the form of comprehensive reviews, original studies, and novel perspectives that address aspects of basic, translational, and applied research to develop countermeasures advance, such as surveillance tools, diagnostic tests, vaccines, and therapeutics, as well as omics tools and advances in nanotechnology in diagnostic, therapeutic and microbial research, and rational drug and vaccine projects that can support research in all the above areas.

Prof. Dr. Maria José Soares Mendes Giannini
Dr. Ana Marisa Fusco Almeida
Prof. Dr. Angel Gonzalez Marin
Dr. Marcia S.C. Melhem
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. Journal of Fungi is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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• fungal pathogens
• newly emerging and newly recognized infections
• geographical spread of infections
• drug-resistant fungi
• microbial adaptation and evolution
• human susceptibility to infection
• one health approach to fungal infections
• changing ecosystems
• biofilms fungi and their microbial interactions
• molecular tools to study host-pathogen interactions
• new or improved diagnostic methods