05-Oct-2020 | Market Research Store
The fungal infection in plants and humans is likely to have a new breakthrough as the knowledge over fungi’s drug resistance is only deepening. Earlier it was thought that mutations in a fungi's DNA is the primary cause for the development of antifungal drug resistance in them. However, the recent diagnostic tools are now being used to sequence and identify which mutations in fungi’s DNA triggers drug resistance. The researchers from the University of Edinburgh have lately found that fungi develop resistance without bringing about any changes in their genetic code. Additionally, the epigenetic changes exhibited by the fungi have no effect on its DNA. It is being studied that previously many of the causes and cases of antifungal resistance have been missed.
Across the globe there are billions being affected with fungal diseases on an annual basis. There are almost estimated 1.6 Million deaths occurring due to antifungal resistance on a global scale. The currently increasing cases of infection resistance to treatment is the major problem that weakness the immune system in the sufferers, especially in HIV patients. At present, there are only a few available antifungal drugs that exist in the market. Moreover, the increasing resistance in soil borne fungi is also basically due to the overuse of agricultural fungicides. The fungi are known to be the root cause for the increasing number of annual food crop deaths.
Hence, a group of scientists from the University of Edinburgh studied the resistance development in yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, using caffeine as an alternative antifungal drug. The team found changes in certain chemical tags that help the DNA organize. Some of the genes were found to be clubbed into a heterochromatin structure which activates or silences the genes to trigger resistance. The new findings will open a new door for the development of newer therapies to treat infections by just altering the epigenetic drugs or producing new ones with fungal heterochromatin intervention. The development of new fungicides will help lower agricultural losses and also reduce spread of fungal infection in humans.
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