Editorial: The Role of the Fungal Cell Wall in Host-Fungal Interactions.

Abstract

By providing mechanical strength and protection from the ever-changing hostile environment, the cell-wall (CW) forms an essential structure of fungal cells. Concerning host-pathogen interaction, the CW is the first fungal structure to interact with the host. It is a dynamic organelle with complex composition, varying between fungal species, morphotypes, and growth conditions, which poses difficulties in deciphering its role during host-fungal interactions. Therefore, new strategies to understand CW-organization are needed to improve the management of fungal infections. While CW-directed antifungals show good/acceptable efficacy, their clinical application is limited to echinocandins that inhibit biosynthesis of β-(1,3)-glucan, a major component in the fungal CW. Echinocandins are used for salvage therapy against invasive fungal infections (IFI) owing to their toxicity, paradoxical effect at higher doses, and due to the emergence of fungal resistance against echinocandins. This demands a necessity to discover alternative CW-targets and to develop new antifungals. On the other hand, in spite of medical advances, diagnostic-delay is attributed to be one of the reasons for increasing mortality due to IFI. Although circulating CW-antigens have been proven to be diagnostic biomarkers, the existing protocols suffer from specificity and sensitivity issues, requiring new tools overcoming these drawbacks. In our focused topic, the nine articles collected highlight recent developments regarding the fungal CW in these research areas.