Fungal vaccines, mechanism of actions and immunology: A comprehensive review

• Published in: Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy Vol. 109; pp. 333 - 344
• Main Authors: Nami, Sanam, Mohammadi, Rasoul, Vakili, Mahshid, Khezripour, Kimia, Mirzaei, Hamed, Morovati, Hamid
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: France Elsevier Masson SAS 01.01.2019; Elsevier
• Subjects: Fungal infections; Immune response; Vaccine; Vaccine; Immune response; Fungal infections
• ISSN: 0753-3322; 1950-6007
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2018.10.075

[Display omitted] •Today, fungal diseases are not limited to skin and hair anymore.•Opportunistic fungi causes lethal systemic infections and impose high medical costs to health systems.•Fungal vaccine development has been proposed as one of the treatment and prevention strategies in the last decade.•Antifungal vaccine projects are classified into three main groups, live-attenuated, recombinant, and conjugate vaccines. Fungal infections include a wide range of opportunistic and invasive diseases. Two of four major fatal diseases in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection are related to the fungal infections, cryptococcosis, and pneumocystosis. Disseminated candidiasis and different clinical forms of aspergillosis annually impose expensive medical costs to governments and hospitalized patients and ultimately lead to high mortality rates. Therefore, urgent implementations are necessary to prevent the expansion of these diseases. Designing an effective vaccine is one of the most important approaches in this field. So far, numerous efforts have been carried out in developing an effective vaccine against fungal infections. Some of these challenges engaged in different stages of clinical trials but none of them could be approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Here, in addition to have a comprehensive overview on the data from studied vaccine programs, we will discuss the immunology response against fungal infections. Moreover, it will be attempted to clarify the underlying immune mechanisms of vaccines targeting different fungal infections that are crucial for designing an effective vaccination strategy.