Developing fungal bromodomain inhibitors as a potential new class of antifungal drugs – FungiBD

Invasive fungal infections cause over 1.5 million deaths annually worldwide. The limited repertoire of available drugs and a rise in drug-resistant strains has led to an urgent need for novel therapeutic strategies. In this project we propose to target chromatin signaling pathways mediated by bromodomains, small protein domains that interact with chromatin by binding to acetylated histone peptides. Human bromodomain inhibitors have been intensely studied as potential anti-cancer therapeutic agents. The goal of this project to validate fungal bromodomains as a novel antifungal target in Candida species and develop small-molecule bromodomain inhibitors for translation into a new class of antifungal drug. The project involves a consortium of four partners with combined expertise in fungal genetics and epigenetics, protein biochemistry, structural biology, medicinal chemistry and medical mycology.