New strategies for treatment of Candida vaginal infections

New strategies for treatment of vaginal candidiasis have been recently exploited, due to widespread occurrence of this disease, in particular as recurrent infec-tions, limitations of safe and efficacious antifungals as well as the lack of reliable preventative approaches. In this review new chemotherapeutic and immunothe-rapeutic strategies, based on the improved understanding of the immunopatho-genesis of this prevalent human infection, will be discussed. The role of killer antibodies (or their molecular derivatives), i.e. antibodies that show antibiotic activity bearing the internal image of a yeast killer toxin (KT), characterized by a wide spectrum of microbicidal activity, and of the specific cell wall KT receptor as putative new therapeutic agents and preventative or therapeutic vaccines, res-pectively, will be particularly outlined. Vaginal candidiasis, Anticandidal chemotherapy, Anticandidal immunotherapy, Anticandidal vaccines, Killer antibodies Nuevas estrategias en el tratamiento de las infeccione