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Review
. 2023 Jan-Dec;22(1):1136-1153.
doi: 10.1080/14760584.2023.2279570. Epub 2023 Nov 13.

Vaccine development for pathogenic fungi: current status and future directions

Jéssica L Chechi  1 , Felipe A C da Costa  1   2 , Julia M Figueiredo  1 , Cássia M de Souza  3   4 , Alessandro F Valdez  5 , Daniel Zamith-Miranda  5 , Aline C Camara  1   2 , Carlos P Taborda  1   2 , Joshua D Nosanchuk  5
Affiliations
Review

Vaccine development for pathogenic fungi: current status and future directions

Jéssica L Chechi et al. Expert Rev Vaccines. 2023 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Introduction: Fungal infections are caused by a broad range of pathogenic fungi that are found worldwide with different geographic distributions, incidences, and mortality rates. Considering that there are relatively few approved medications available for combating fungal diseases and no vaccine formulation commercially available, multiple groups are searching for new antifungal drugs, examining drugs for repurposing and developing antifungal vaccines, in order to control deaths, sequels, and the spread of these complex infections.

Areas covered: This review provides a summary of advances in fungal vaccine studies and the different approaches under development, such as subunit vaccines, whole organism vaccines, and DNA vaccines, as well as studies that optimize the use of adjuvants. We conducted a literature search of the PubMed with terms: fungal vaccines and genus of fungal pathogens (Cryptococcus spp. Candida spp. Coccidioides spp. Aspergillus spp. Sporothrix spp. Histoplasma spp. Paracoccidioides spp. Pneumocystis spp. and the Mucorales order), a total of 177 articles were collected from database.

Expert opinion: Problems regarding the immune response development in an immunocompromised organism, the similarity between fungal and mammalian cells, and the lack of attention by health organizations to fungal infections are closely related to the fact that, at present, there are no fungal vaccines available for clinical use.

Keywords: Fungal vaccine; fungal biology; immune therapy; prophylactic vaccine; subunit; therapeutic vaccine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or material discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or mending, or royalties.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Timeline of Fungal Vaccine Approaches. The timeline is based on the compilation: (aGSL: acidic glycosphingolipids; AH: aluminum hydroxide; Ca: C. albicans; Cg: C. gattii; Cn: C. neoformans; CWP: cell wall proteins; DC: dendritic cell; DDA-TDB: dioctadecyldimethylammonium with a trehalose dibehenate-cationic adjuvant formulation; DOTAP: cationic lipid N-[1-(2,3-dioleoyloxypropyl]-N, N, N,-trimethylammonium methylsulfate; FA: Freund’s adjuvant; GCP: glucan-chitin particles; gp: glycoprotein; GLP: glucan particles; GSC-1: Pneumocystis catalytic subunit of β-1,3-glucan synthase; GXM: glucuronoxylomannann; Hc: H. capsulatum; HK: Heat-killed; IVIG: Intravenous immunoglobulin; KEX1: Kexin 1 protein; mAbs: monoclonal antibodies; MHC-II: Major Histocompatibility Complex Class II; NDV-3: Als3 fused to a 6-His tag and linker sequences; NDV-3A: Als3 with no extraneous sequences; Nps: nanoparticles; NXT-2: a panfungal peptide based on homologous sequences from Pneumocystis, Aspergillus, Candida, and Cryptococcus; PGA: Montanide™ Pet Gel A; PLGA: Poly (lactic acid-glycolic acid); Pm: P. murina; Saps: secreted aspartyl proteinases; ssCWP: S. schenckii yeast cell wall proteins; TEOS: tetraethylorthosilicate; TT: Tetanus toxoid; VLP: virus-like particles.)
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References

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