Immunotherapy for Fungal Infections

Abstract

Opportunistic fungal infections are a major health problem being appointed by some studies as the fourth main cause of hospital-acquired infection in susceptible popula-tions. The constantly growing incidences of these diseases are associated with the growing number of susceptible individuals, such as immunocompromised individuals (leukemia, AIDS, etc) and treatment-induced immunodeficiency (hematopoietic stem cell, solid organ transplant, anticancer therapy). Furthermore, other advances in medical care, patient's long-term hospitalization and antimicrobial therapies have created sev-eral vulnerable populations to fungal infections. Currently, antifungal drug therapies are several times inefficient, and the poor outcomes are linked to difficulties in the early diagnosis of fungal infections and drug resistance among fungal pathogens. In this con-text, novel therapeutic approaches are welcome to stimulate efficiently the host immune response to eliminate the fungal pathogen. This chapter is intended to review advances in immunotherapy strategies for fungal infections.