Potent antifungal agents and use of nanocarriers to improve delivery to the infected site: A systematic review

Abstract

There are four major classes of antifungals with the predominant mechanism of action being targeting of cell wall or cell membrane. As in other drugs, low solubility of these compounds has led to low bioavailability in target tissues. Enhanced drug dosages have effects such as toxicity, drug–drug interactions, and increased drug resistance by fungi. This article reviews the current state‐of‐the‐art of antifungals, structure, mechanism of action, other usages, and toxic side effects. The emergence of nanoformulations to transport and uniformly release cargo at the target site is a boon in antifungal treatment. The article details research that lead to the development of nanoformulations of antifungals and potential advantages and avoidance of the lacunae characterizing conventional drugs. A range of nanoformulations based on liposomes, polymers are in various stages of research and their potential advantages have been brought out. It could be observed that under similar dosages, test models, and duration, nanoformulations provided enhanced activity, reduced toxicity, higher uptake and higher immunostimulatory effects. In most instances, the mechanism of antifungal activity of nanoformulations was similar to that of regular antifungal. There are possibilities of coupling multiple antifungals on the same nano‐platform. Increased activity coupled with multiple mechanisms of action presents for nanoformulations a tremendous opportunity to overcome antifungal resistance. In the years to come, robust methods for the preparation of nanoformulations taking into account the repeatability and reproducibility in action, furthering the studies on nanoformulation toxicity and studies of human models are required before extensive use of nanoformulations as a prescribed drug.

Synergistic Anticandidal Activities of Greenly Synthesized ZnO Nanomaterials with Commercial Antifungal Agents against Candidal Infections

“…By reason of the squalene epoxidase enzyme’s action, which oxidizes squalene intermediates and accumulates them, ergosterol production is inhibited. This lack of ergosterol causes fungal cell death by increasing cellular permeability and upsetting cellular organization [ 54 ]. Correspondingly, we proposed that the synergistic effect of terbinafine with the bio-prepared ZnO-NPs results from the ergosterol inhibition action of terbinafine that disrupted the cellular permeability and led to the internalization of the bio-prepared ZnO-NPs that also underwent oxidation of cellular components such as DNA, protein, and enzymes leading to fungal cell death.…”

Development of nanobiosensors for human immunodeficiency virus detection—a mini review

“…Nanotechnology has profound applications in biosensing, theranostics, targeted drug delivery, nanoformulation of neutraceuticals, medical imaging, etc. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Nanobiosensors are sensing devices used to detect various biomolecules in a test sample.…”

Progress of polymer-based strategies in fungal disease management: Designed for different roles

“…So far, this field has been reviewed with emphasis on nano-scaled composites primarily used as drug delivery systems and synthetic materials with antifungal activity ( Du et al., 2021 ; Nagaraj et al., 2021 ; Ntow-Boahene et al., 2021 ). In this review, we describe polymer-based strategies for management of fungal disease, including treatment, diagnosis as well as monitoring and prevention ( Scheme 1 ).…”