Regulation of Multidrug Resistance in Human Pathogen Candida albicans

The dimorphic opportunistic pathogen,Candida albicans is normally a commensal organism in humans, but in immunocompromised individual,as in AIDS,organ transplant,diabetes,cancer patients,it results in systemic or invasive mycoses.Continuous exposure to antifungals has led to the emergence of drug resistance by a phenomenon termed as Multidrug Resistance (MDR).Much progress has been accomplished towards identification and understanding of drug resistance mechansisms that could make better antifungal agents. However,the need for understanding novel molecular mechanisms for MDR is indisputable in these clinically challenging infections by C.albicans. Although the importance of iron during C.albicans infection is known, mechanisms correlating about the influence of iron availability on MDR in this fungus are not reported yet. Since, MDR is a multifactorial phenomenon, iron mediated novel MDR mechanisms described in this book for pathogenic fungi clearly hold promise to be new potential drug regulatory mechanism so that it may facilitate the development of better antifungal strategies and thereby efficiently control the human infectious diseases.