Recent Trends in Human and Animal Mycology

Fungal pathogens pose an on-going and serious threat for poikilotherms and homeotherms, and can cause a broad spectrum of diseases ranging from innocuous to life-threatening. In addition, long-term exposure to some mycotoxigenic moulds can lead to mycotoxicoses in human and animals. Given the expanding population of immune compromised hosts, the list of fungal opportunists grows longer every year. Moreover, antifungal resistance, drug-related toxicity and our limited arsenal of antifungals have exacerbated the situation. To address these problems, strategies such as the identification of novel targets, use of the structure-activity relationship in rational drug design, development of new formulations, modification of existing antifungals to combat resistance, and bioavailability enhancement are called for. 

For the reader’s convenience, this book has been divided into three sections. The first six chapters of Section I provide a timely review of mycoses, from endemic to cosmopolitan and from generalized to specific, while both chapters of Section II focus on risks associated with mycotoxins. In closing, the two chapters of Section III describe potential antifungal leads and drug candidates based on phytochemicals and coumarin scaffold.

Dr Karuna Singh is an Associate Professor at the Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. She received her BSc, MSc (Zoology) and PhD degrees from Rani Durgavati University, Jabalpur, India and has been actively engaged in teaching and research for the last 16 years. Chiefly working in the field of Animal Mycology, Dr Singh’s current areas of research interest are molecular epidemiology of cryptococcosis, mycotoxicoses and drug design. She has published more than 40 original research papers and book chapters, filed two patents and edited one book. She has led two research projects funded by the CST-UP and Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi.

Neelabh Srivastava is a Senior Research Fellow (ICMR) at the Department of Zoology (MMV), Banaras Hindu University, India, where he works in the fields of drug design and antifungal peptides. He has published more than 30 research papers and filed one patent. He has won the prestigious Young ISHAM fellowship twice and currently serves as a reviewer and editorial board member for several prominent national and international scientific journals.