Novel avenues for identification of new antifungal drugs and current challenges.

Introduction: Some of the fungi have become pathogenic to humans, and these opportunistic pathogens are able to cause severe systemic mycoses.
Areas Covered: The number of antifungals for systemic administration is limited and resistance to these drugs is common. This review summarizes various approaches to the discovery and development of new antifungals, provides an overview of important molecules in basic research and compounds in clinical trials, and focuses on drug repurposing strategy, while providing an overview of drugs of other indications that have been tested in vitro for their antifungal activity for possible expansion of antifungal drugs and/or support of existing antimycotics.
Expert Opinion: Despite the limitations of the research of new antifungals by manufacturers, in addition to innovated molecules based on clinically used drugs, several completely new small entities with unique mechanisms of actions have been identified. The identification of new molecular targets that offer alternatives for the development of new unique selective antifungal highly effective agents has been an important outcome of repurposing of non-antifungal drugs to antifungal drug. Also, given the advances in monoclonal antibodies and their application to immunosuppressed patients, it may seem possible to predict a more optimistic future for antifungal therapy than has been the case in recent decades.