Unprecedented fungal infections and systematization of superficial mycosis: the immunity paradigm

Abstract

Fungal infections account for >1 million deaths per year worldwide and projections foresee continual increase. Longer lives of patients with immunity defects such as HIV due to technological and therapeutic advancements in the past few decades has made a new approach to fungal infections needed. Fungi which were previously thought as environmental and saprophytic seem to be able to infect immunocompromised patients to a deadly extent, and as the medical scientific community – and subsequently clinicians – were unaware of these organisms concerning pathological relations, it seemed crucial to organize information on the topic to better address it. In this review, we have compiled data on the basic molecular mechanisms of infection and immunity against fungi, epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of fungal infections, as well as presented the main rising ‘new’ fungi from the immunity paradigm of last decades. In conclusion, literature data seems to attribute great importance to the observation of superficial mycosis and preventing its systematization, since treatment are not yet promising against unprecedented diseases brought up by the fungi immunity paradigm.