Immunotherapeutic approaches for fungal infections

• Published in: Current opinion in microbiology Vol. 58; pp. 130 - 137
• Main Authors: Williams, Thomas J, Harvey, Sunshine, Armstrong-James, Darius
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2020
• ISSN: 1369-5274; 1879-0364
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2020.09.007

•Invasive fungal infections have high mortality, and are increasingly drug resistant.•Immunotherapy is a rational approach for fungal disease in immunocompromised.•Recombinant cytokine therapy is an established approach with broad applicability.•Cellular therapy with neutrophils, T cells and T cell CAR all have clinical potential.•Vaccines, and monoclonal therapies (host or fungal-directed) are emerging options. Despite the availability of antifungal treatments, fungal infections are still causing morbidity all around the globe with unacceptably high mortality rates. A major driver for the rising incidence of serious fungal infections is due to a substantial increase in immunocompromised individuals with autoimmune diseases, cancers and transplants. Because of growing resistance in fungus to frontline triazole antifungals and the association of fungal disease with the immunocompromised host, adjunctive host-directed therapy is seen as a promising choice to improve patient outcomes. Immunotherapeutic treatments being explored as adjunct therapies to existing antifungal treatments include cytokine therapy, monoclonal antibodies and cellular immunotherapy. In this review, we give a brief overview of potential immunotherapies and recent developments in the field, which are needed to tackle the growing problem of fungal diseases.