The Chemistry of Drugs to Treat Candida albicans

Background: Candida species are in various parts of the human body as commensals. However, they can cause local mucosal infections and, sometimes, systemic infections in which Candida species can spread to all major organs and colonize them.

Objective: For the effective treatment of the mucosal infections and systemic life-threatening fungal diseases, a considerably large number of antifungal drugs have been developed and used for clinical purposes that comprise agents from four main drug classes: the polyenes, azoles, echinocandins, and antimetabolites.

Methods: The synthesis of some of these drugs is available, allowing synthetic modification of the molecules to improve the biological activity against Candida species. The synthetic methodology for each compound is reviewed.

Results: The use of these compounds has caused a high-level resistance against these drugs, and therefore, new antifungal substances have been described in the last years. The organic synthesis of the known and new compounds is reported.

Conclusion: This article summarizes the chemistry of the existing agents, both the old drugs and new drugs, in the treatment of infections due to C. albicans, including the synthesis of the existing drugs.