COMBATING MDR in Pathogens

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 01.0041

Key words (English)

Candida; antifingal drug resistance; multidrug transporter regulation;
Life Sciences; Medicine; Health; Safety; Scientific Research; Social Aspects

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: QLK2-CT-2001-02377

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 5. Frame Research Programme - 1.1.2 Control of infectious diseases

Short description (English)

See abstract

Further information (English)

Full name of research-institution/enterprise:
Centre hospitalier universitaire vaudois CHUV
Institut de Microbiologie

Partners and International Organizations (English)

HHU Düsseldorf (D), ENS de Paris (F), BJMU Würzburg (D), JNU New Delhi (IN), CU Bratislava (SK), Universität Bonn (D)

Abstract (English)

In view of the increasing threat of Candida infections, particularly to immuno-compromised patients due to non-availability of effective treatments, it is imperative to look for novel drugs with new targets. Such a search appears even more urgent as in Western world the common Candida strains acquire resistance to antifungals (multidrug resistance, MDR) and thus, severely hamper successful therapy. In this context leading experts in the field have joined their efforts to combat MDR of C.albicans on the following complementary areas:
1) systematic analysis of the functional domains of the transcription regulators and cell surface glycoproteins involved in MDR;
2) Search for new targets of MDR transcription regulators by using micro-array DNA chip technology;
3) Development of a screening system, in a suitable yeast background, for a block in an early regulatory step (including entry of the drug) in the acquired mechanism of MDR.

This approach aims at:
(a) defining novel components of MDR and;
(b) screening for regulatory inhibitors rather than for new antifungals, to which fungi are expected to develop resistance in due time.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 01.0041