@conference{
author = "Pavić, Aleksandar and Đuriš, Jelena and Vukotić, Goran and Obradović, Mina and Plačkić, Nikola",
year = "2024",
abstract = "Fungal infections, once considered a rare disease,
have become an everyday problem in modern
societies, posing major challenges to global
health. It is estimated that more than one billion
people are affected by fungal infections and 1.6
million people succumb to these diseases every
year. Of the 600 species of fungi capable of causing
infections in humans, species of the genus
Candida cause more than 85% of infections, especially
C. albicans, which has become a serious
threat to human health in immunocompromised
and immunosuppressed individuals. Unfortunately,
the current arsenal of clinical drugs relies
on only four classes of approved drugs (polyenes,
azoles, echinocandins and allylamines), which
are only partially effective, resulting in incomplete
eradication of the fungal infection. In
addition, the serious side effects, ranging from
systemic or organ-specific toxicity to poor bioavailability
and low activity, significantly hamper
the clinical use of antifungals. These problems
call for new effective and safe antifungal agents,but also for appropriate preclinical models to accurately
study potential adverse effects on the
human population and test their efficacy against
fungal infections. In this sense, zebrafish (Danio
rerio) embryos have become one of the most
powerful preclinical animal models in infection
biology and drug discovery, offering the unique
opportunity to simultaneously monitor the safety
and efficacy of the applied molecule in real
time. With the aim of providing a preclinical platform
for the identification of new safe antifungal
drugs to effectively control C. albicans infection,
we comprehensively tested the toxicity of 13
clinical antifungal drugs in the zebrafish embryo
model. The 21 toxicity endpoints, including
survival, teratogenicity, cardiotoxicity and hepatotoxicity,
were evaluated and compared with
adverse effects described in rats and humans. Of
the clinical drugs, the efficacy of fluconazole and
voriconazole was evaluated in the zebrafish - C.
albicans model of systemic and wound biofilm
infection.",
publisher = "Serbian Society for Microbiology",
journal = "XIII Congress of microbiologists of Serbia: From biotechnology to human and planetary health",
title = "EMPOWERING ANTIFUNGAL DRUGS DISCOVERY THROUGH THE ZEBRAFISH-INFECTIOUS DISEASES MODELLING",
pages = "140-140",
url = "https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_imagine_2379"
}