Oral antifungal agents

Abstract

Oral antifungals advanced greatly since the introduction of griseofulvin, a drug with narrow-spectrum of activity against derrnatophytes. The following era is the discovery of the azole antifungals including ketoconazole, itraconazole and fluconazole that have broard-spectrum of activities. Terbinafine is the first oral antifungal that has fungicidal effect and enables ul; to treat many kinds of fungal infections successfully. However, there is still no " ideal" drug that could cover all kinds of fungal infections. At present, there are many drug-resistance organisms, various side effects of the drugs as well as drug interactions. Antifungals such as voriconazole, ravuconazole and posaconazole are new members of the azoles. A new group of antifungal with unique mechanism of action such as the echinocandins were developed in attempt to "fix" all the antifungal pitfalls. The mode of action, pharrnacokinetics, clinical use, side effects and drug interactions of these drugs were reviewed in this article.