Systemic Antifungal Agents -- Current Status and Future Trends

Martin Pravda¹ (pravda@faf.cuni.cz), Lenka Kubicová¹, Ondřej Veselý¹, Martin Šustr¹, Vladimír Buchta²

¹ Department of Inorganic and Organic Chemistry, ² Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

Summary

Pharmacotherapy of systemic mycoses brings many unsolved problems, but also new challenges. There are just few triazole compounds (voriconazole, itraconazole, fluconazole), amphotericin B (including forms bound on a lipid carrier) and caspofungin, member of a novel group of echinocandin antimycotics. None of these drugs represent an ideal antimycotic acting against a selective fungal target, and therefore with a broad-spectrum activity and without significant adverse effects. A limited number of effecient and safe antimycotics iniciated the search for new structures with antifungal effect among natural and synthetic compounds, but it also resulted in effort of decreasing the toxicity and improving the pharmacokinetic profile of currently used drugs, e.g. using conjugates with polymers. The present review with 165 references provides an overview of current status and perspectives in the area of systemic antifungal agents.