Fluorescent peptides for imaging of fungal cells

Abstract

Fungal infections, especially with the advent of antimicrobial resistance, represent a major burden to our society. As a result, there has been an increasing interest in the development of new probes that accelerate the study of fungi-related biological processes and facilitate novel clinical diagnostic and treatment strategies. Fluorescence-based reporters can provide dynamic information at the molecular level with high spatial resolution. However, conventional fluorescent probes for microbes often suffer from low specificity. In the last decade, numerous studies have been reported on the chemical design and application of fluorescent peptides for both in vitro and in vivo imaging of fungal cells. In this article, we review different strategies used in the preparation of fluorescent peptides for pathogenic fungi as well as some of their applications in medical imaging and in mode-of-action mechanistic studies.