Organometallic-Containing Triazoles Against Resistant FungI – OTARI

The OTARI project aims to understand how organometallic-containing azoles are able to escape resistance in fungi and to use this knowledge to develop better antifungal agents. The project leaders have recently shown that known antifungal agents containing a triazole structure, such as fluconazole (FCZ), that have been modified by the incorporation of an organometallic moiety, exhibit improved therapeutic profiles against a wide range of fungal strains, including resistant ones. While the beneficial effects of organometallic moieties for drug design are well documented, their exact nature in the context of an antimycotic agent remains to be elucidated. The consortium will use its expertise in the study of antifungal agents, through a variety of techniques ranging from in silico modeling to in vivo studies, to understand the exceptionally promising activities of FCZs modified by the incorporation of an organometallic moiety and to develop new organometallic-triazoles. The goal of this project is to design a lead drug candidate against clinically relevant fungi that have been labeled as critical by the World Health Organization (WHO) in October 2022.