Immunotherapy for Fungal Infections

Opportunistic fungal infections are major causes of morbidity and mortality among immunocompromised individuals. Fungi have evolved complex and coordinated mechanisms to survive in the environment and in the mammalian host. Fungi must adapt to “stressors ” in the host (including scarcity of nutrients, pH, and reactive oxygen and nitrogen intermediates) in addition to evading host immunity. Knowledge of the im-munopathogenesis of fungal infections has paved the way to promising strategies for immunotherapy. These include strategies that increase phagocyte number, activate innate host defense pathways in phagocytes and dendritic cells, and stimulate antigen-specific immunity (e.g., vaccines). Immunotherapy must be tailored to specific immunocompromised states. Challenges exist in bringing promising immunotherapies from the lab-oratory to clinical trials. Opportunistic fungal infections are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised pa-tients. In some patients, the host defense deficit is well defined, such as in patients with chronic granulomatous disease. Others may have multiple defects in immunity. This is particularly the case among recipients of allo