Advanced Vesicular Systems for Antifungal Drug Delivery

Abstract

Fungal infections are considered one of the most serious conditions as their occurrence has increased lately. Fungi like Candida, Fusarium, and Aspergillus species mostly affect immunocompromised patients as they are considered opportunistic pathogens. These infections can be superficial, cutaneous, subcutaneous, or systemic fungal infections that require specific treatment. There is a wide variety of antifungal drugs that can be used to cure fungal infections; however, most of them have many systemic side effects due to their physicochemical characteristics and high toxicity profile. Hence, the current review focuses on various advanced vesicular carriers with high biocompatibility that can encapsulate the antifungal drugs owing to increase their efficacy and limit the undesirable side effects. These advanced systems can manage stability, solubility, bioavailability, safety, and effectiveness issues present in conventional systems.

Towards potential antifungal agents: synthesis, supramolecular self-assembly and in vitro activity of azole mono-, sesqui- and diterpenoids

“…Besides, they have limitations in relation to clinical efficacy connected with low water solubility caused by the hydrophobic nature of these compounds. 8 The use of skin penetration enhancers accelerating penetration of the drugs by reversibly reducing diffusion resistance to the lipid bilayer is one of the ways to solve these problems. 9 Skin penetration enhancers are compounds that facilitate transdermal delivery of the drug compounds.…”

Carbon Nanotube Hybrid Materials: Efficient and Pertinent Platforms for Antifungal Drug Delivery

“…through routes such as intravenous, topical, and more. [3,15,32,35,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56] Their antifungal activities have been investigated against a diverse range of fungal species like Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Cryptococcus tropicum, Trichophyton rubrum, Microsporum canis, Aspergillus nidulans, Microsporum gypseum, Microsporum canis, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and others [3,15,32,35,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56] (Table 1).…”

“…Many researchers have reported a wide range of AF‐DDS, including liposomes (LIP), niosomes, proniosomes, transferosomes, ethosomes, transethosomes, bilosomes, cubosomes, spanlastics, cerosomes, terpesomes, novasomes, polymerosomes, oleic acid vesicles, lipid micelles, and dendrimers [ 32,39 ] ( Figure ). These systems deliver drugs like AMB, MIZ, ECZ, KTZ, clotrimazole (CTZ), ITZ, FLC, TRB, NYS, CCZ, tolnaftate, AGF, CPX, VRC, terconazole, natamycin, luliconazole, fenticonazole nitrate, CAS, MCF, 5‐Fluorouracil (5‐FU), Isavuconazole (ISA) etc.…”

“…These can be fungistatic (hinder fungal growth only) and fungicidal (kill the fungal cell), and based on chemical structure classified into five main classes: polyenes (amphotericin B; AMB and nystatin; NYS), azoles (econazole; ECZ, miconazole; MIZ, croconazole; CCZ, ketoconazole; KTZ, fluconazole; FLC, itraconazole; ITZ, voriconazole; VRC), allylamines (terbinafine; TRB, naftifine; NF, and Butenafine), echinocandins (caspofungin; CAS, micafungin; MCF, and anidulafungin; AFG), and antimetabolites, whereas other antifungals include ciclopirox (CPX), griseofulvin (GF), and amorolfine. [3,32] Polyenes and azoles were clinically approved in the 1980s, while echinocandins were developed and authorized in the 20th century. Popular antifungal drugs for aspergillosis included AMB, VRC, posaconazole, ITZ, MCF, CAS, AFG, FLC, KTZ, ITZ, polygodial, AMB, MIZ, and pyraclostrobin used for candidiasis.…”

Benzamidine Conjugation Converts Expelled Potential Active Agents into Antifungals against Drug-Resistant Fungi

“…Reversing the efflux of EPAAs may be an effective strategy for discovering new antifungal drugs. Methods for increasing intracellular retention of EPAAs include (i) structural modification to avoid expulsion, (ii) coating with vesicular carriers, and (iii) inhibiting the efflux pumps. − …”