Beyond Penicillin: The Potential of Filamentous Fungi for Drug Discovery in the Age of Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotics are a staple in current medicine for the therapy of infectious diseases. However, their extensive use and misuse, combined with the high adaptability of bacteria, has dangerously increased the incidence of multi-drug-resistant (MDR) bacteria. This makes the treatment of infections challenging, especially when MDR bacteria form biofilms. The most recent antibiotics entering the market have very similar modes of action to the existing ones, so bacteria rapidly catch up to those as well. As such, it is very important to adopt effective measures to avoid the development of antibiotic resistance by pathogenic bacteria, but also to perform bioprospecting of new molecules from diverse sources to expand the arsenal of drugs that are available to fight these infectious bacteria. Filamentous fungi have a large and vastly unexplored secondary metabolome and are rich in bioactive molecules that can be potential novel antimicrobial drugs. Their production can be challenging, as the associated biosynthetic pathways may not be active under standard culture conditions. New techniques involving metabolic and genetic engineering can help boost antibiotic production. This study aims to review the bioprospection of fungi to produce new drugs to face the growing problem of MDR bacteria and biofilm-associated infections.

Automated summary

Antibiotics are widely used in medicine to treat infectious diseases, but their misuse has led to the emergence of multi-drug-resistant bacteria. These resistant bacteria, especially when forming biofilms, pose a challenge for infection treatment. New antibiotics entering the market have similar modes of action to existing ones, allowing bacteria to rapidly develop resistance. Effective measures are needed to prevent antibiotic resistance and bioprospecting of fungi can provide potential novel antimicrobial drugs. New techniques involving genetic engineering can enhance antibiotic production. This study aims to review the bioprospection of fungi for producing new drugs against multi-drug-resistant bacteria and biofilm-associated infections.