Developing Fungal Vaccines

In recent years, the incidence of life-threatening fungal infections has dramatically increased. This expansion is based on an increase in the number of immunocompromised patients, including cancer patients with chemotherapy-induced neutropenia, transplant recipients receiving immunosuppressive therapy, and human immunodeficiency virus infected patients. In addition to opportunistic fungal infections, endemic systemic fungal infections remain a major public health problem in several countries and they are becoming increasingly frequent with the spread of human immunodeficiency virus infection. Despite significant developments in antifungal chemotherapy, its efficacy remains limited by the inability to sterilize infected organs and the tendency to induce resistance and cause side effects. In response to these challenges, it is now recognized that several aspects of antifungal immunity can be modulated to better deal with fungal infections. Extensive work has been carried out on the development and testing of preventive and therapeutic antifungal vaccines. Here, the progress of current research in this field was reviewed.