Potent antifungal agents and use of nanocarriers to improve delivery to the infected site - a systematic review.

Nagaraj, Saraswathi; Manivannan, Sivakami; Narayan, Shoba

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 has effects such as toxicity, drug-drug interactions and increased drug resistance by fungi. This article reviews current state-of-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 were 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 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 prior to extensive use of nanoformulations as a prescribed drug. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.