As antimicrobial resistance grows, researchers at the University of Georgia confront a new public health threat driven by drug resistance and rising global temperatures: pathogenic fungus.
The number of fungi-related deaths has doubled to almost 4 million people annually over the past decade.
While global warming and extreme weather events promote the growth and spread of fungal spores, the driving force behind the dramatic increase in fatalities is drug resistance, and according to Karen Norris, an infectious disease expert, professor in the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine, and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Immunology and Translational Biomedicine, the compounds used to fight fungal diseases in plants are likely driving resistance to the antifungals used to treat people.
Health care providers have three classes of drugs to fight fungal infections in people. But many species of fungus are already resistant to one, if not more, of these medications.
“Fungi are beating us in the arms race to antifungal resistance,” says Emily Rayens MPH ’20, PhD ’21. Rayens is a postdoctoral fellow in epidemiological research at Kaiser Permanente and previously worked as a fellow in Norris’ lab. “The currently available anti-fungal drugs are not doing a good enough job.”
Norris’ lab developed an experimental vaccine designed to protect against the three most common fungal pathogens responsible for more than 80% of fatal fungal infections.
The results were promising. The vaccine was effective in developing protective antibodies in each of the models.
Norris hopes to take the vaccine to Phase 1 clinical trials in the coming years. If it performs as well in people as it did in animals, the vaccine could be the first big breakthrough in the fight against one of the top public health threats of this generation.
