Fungal infections are rising all over the world every year. There are only five medical compound classes for treatment: triazoles, echinocandins, polyenes, flucytosine and allylamine. Currently, echinocandins are the most important compounds, because of their wide activity spectrum and much lower sides effects that may occur during therapy with other drugs. Echinocandins are secondary metabolites of fungi, which can inhibit the...

Purpose: Candida spp. are ranked as one of the four major causative agents of fungal infections. The number of infections caused by Candida species resistant to fluconazole, which is applied as the first line drug in candidiasis treatment, increases every year. In such cases the application of echinocandin is necessary. Echinocandin susceptibility testing has become a routine laboratory practice in many countries due to the increasing...

Candida glabrata is currently ranked as the second most frequently isolated aetiological agent of human fungal infections, next only to Candida albicans. In comparison with C. albicans, C. glabrata shows lower susceptibility to azoles, the most common agents used in treatment of fungal infections. Interestingly, the mechanisms of resistance to azole agents in C. albicans have been much better investigated than those in C. glabrata....

Fungi of the genus Candida belong to the natural microflora of healthy individuals. However, they can also be a cause of opportunistic infections especially among patients with an impaired immune system. The first line therapy of Candida infections is based on triazoles. However, in recent years there an increase of azole resistant Candida spp., in particular C. glabrata and C. krusei, has been observed. For this reason, echinocandin...