Medically Relevant Fungi: Virulence Factors, and New Diagnostic and Treatment Approaches

Dear Colleagues,

Studying virulence factors and developing novel diagnostic and treatment approaches are critically important for the effective control and management of fungal pathogens, which pose a significant and growing threat to human health. In fungal pathogens, virulence factors can include adhesins, hydrolytic enzymes, toxins, biofilm formation, and immune evasion mechanisms, among others. Understanding these factors is crucial as they provide insight into how fungi invade, persist, and evade host defenses and enable the identification of potential drug targets.

Current fungal diagnostics often suffer from limited sensitivity, slow turnaround times, and low specificity, particularly in low-resource settings. Delayed or inaccurate diagnosis contributes to high morbidity and mortality rates. On the other hand, traditional antifungals (azoles, echinocandins, polyenes) are facing resistance issues and have toxicity concerns. There is an urgent need for novel therapeutic approaches, such as antivirulence therapies, immunotherapies, fungal vaccines, and nanotechnology for targeted drug delivery and reduced toxicity.

This Special Issue welcomes both review and original research papers dealing with fungal virulence factors and the search for new diagnostics or therapeutic approaches to control medically relevant fungal species.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Microorganisms.

Prof. Dr. Hector M. Mora-Montes
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. Microbiology Research 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 1600 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.

• fungal virulence factors
• medical mycology
• antifungal resistance
• novel diagnostics
• antivirulence therapy
• fungal immunotherapies
• adhesins
• fungal toxins
• molecular diagnostics
• immunological diagnostics
• antifungal targets