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Current Pharmaceutical Design

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 1381-6128
ISSN (Online): 1873-4286

Genomics Strategies for Antifungal Drug Discovery - From Gene Discovery to Compound Screening

Author(s): Debra Aker Willins, Marco Kessler, Scott S. Walker, Gregory R. Reyes and Guillaume Cottarel

Volume 8, Issue 13, 2002

Page: [1137 - 1154] Pages: 18

DOI: 10.2174/1381612023394890

Price: $65

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Abstract

The use of genomics tools to discover new genes, to decipher pathways or to assign a function to a gene is just beginning to have an impact. Genomics approaches have been applied to both antibacterial and antifungal target discovery in order to identify a new generation of antibiotics. This review discusses genomics approaches for antifungal drug discovery, focusing on the areas of gene discovery, target validation, and compound screening. A variety of methods to identify fungal genes of interest are discussed, as well as methods for obtaining full-length sequences of these genes. One approach is well-suited to organisms having few introns (Candida albicans), and another for organisms with many introns (Aspergillus fumigatus). To validate broad spectrum fungal targets, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used as a model system to rapidly identify genes essential for growth and viability of the organism. Validated targets were then exploited for high-throughput compound screening.

Keywords: antifungal, antibacterial, target validation, fungal genes, bacterial genes


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