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Antifungal drug - List of antifungal drugs

Antifungal drug - List of antifungal drugs: Encyclopedia II - Antifungal drug - List of antifungal drugs

Antifungals work by exploiting differences between mammalian and fungal cells to kill off the fungal organism without significantly harming the host. Unlike bacteria, both fungi and humans are eukaryotes. The basic structure of a fungal cells and human cells are nearly identical. This means it is more difficult to find a target for an antifungal medication to attack that does not also exist in the infected organism. Consequently, there are often side-effects to these ...

Antifungal drug: Encyclopedia II - Antifungal drug - List of antifungal drugs

Antifungal drug - List of antifungal drugs

There are several classes of antifungal drugs.

The polyene antibiotics bind with sterols in the fungal cell wall, principally ergosterol. This causes the cell's contents to leak out and the cell dies. Animal cells contain cholesterol instead of ergosterol and so they are much less susceptible.

Nystatin
Amphotericin B
Natamycin

The imidazole and triazole groups of antifungal drugs inhibit the enzyme cytochrome P450 14α-demethylase. This enzyme converts lanosterol to ergosterol, and is required in fungal cell wall synthesis. These drugs also block steroid synthesis in humans.

Imidazoles:

Miconazole
Ketoconazole
Clotrimazole
Econazole
Mebendazole
Bifonazole
Butoconazole
Fenticonazole
Isoconazole
Oxiconazole
Sertaconazole
Sulconazole
Thiabendazole
Tiaconazole

The triazoles are newer, and are less toxic and more effective:

Fluconazole
Itraconazole
Ravuconazole
Posaconazole
Voriconazole

Allylamines inhibit the enzyme squalene epoxidase, another enzyme required for ergosterol synthesis:

Terbinafine
Amorolfine
Naftifine
Butenafine

Echinocandins inhibit the synthesis of glucan in the cell wall, probably via the enzyme 1,3-β glucan synthase:

Caspofungin
Micafungin

Others:

Flucytosine is an antimetabolite.
Griseofulvin binds to polymerized microtubules and inhibits fungal mitosis.

Other related archives

Amphotericin B, Antifungals, Caspofungin, Clotrimazole, Fluconazole, Flucytosine, Griseofulvin, Itraconazole, Ketoconazole, Mebendazole, Miconazole, Natamycin, Nystatin, Terbinafine, Thiabendazole, Voriconazole, antimetabolite, athlete's foot, bacteria, candidiasis, cell wall, cells, cholesterol, cryptococcal, dandruff, enzyme, ergosterol, eukaryotes, fungi, imidazole, infections, lanosterol, meningitis, microtubules, mitosis, polyene antibiotics, polymerized, pyrithione zinc, ringworm, selenium sulfide, shampoos, side-effects, steroid, sterols, triazole

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "List of antifungal drugs", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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