| Abstract: | The recent American approval of Cancidas?, a semi-synthetic echinocandin, for salvage treatment of aspergillosis has demonstrated that the cell wall is a clinically viable target for treating fungal infections. Recently, a variety of new, sulfated members of the echinocandin lipopeptide family have been reported, which, like other echinocandins, are glucan synthesis inhibitors. In addition, two new classes of lipopeptide glucan synthesis inhibitors, the aerothricin lipopeptidolactones and the Sankyo lipopeptides, have been identified, as well as a novel member of the papulacandin family of liposaccharide glucan synthesis inhibitors. The first new structural class of glucan synthesis inhibitors discovered in over 20 years, the so-called sterol glycosides, is reviewed. Five different structural types within this class have been characterised. Finally, several novel compounds with cell wall antifungal activity based on inhibition of chitin synthase are reviewed. |
