Medically Relevant Fungi: Virulence Factors, and New Diagnostic and Treatment Approaches
A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Medical Microbiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2026 | Viewed by 417
Special Issue Editor
Interests: fungal cell wall; virulence factors; host–fungus interaction
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
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 Microbiology Research.
Prof. Dr. Hector M. Mora-Montes
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- fungal virulence factors
- medical mycology
- antifungal resistance
- novel diagnostics
- antivirulence therapy
- fungal immunotherapies
- adhesins
- fungal toxins
- molecular diagnostics
- immunological diagnostics
- antifungal targets
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