Fungal Vaccine Development: State of the Art and Perspectives Using Immunoinformatics

Abstract

Fungal infections represent a serious global health problem, causing damage to health and the economy on the scale of millions. Although vaccines are the most effective therapeutic approach used to combat infectious agents, at the moment, no fungal vaccine has been approved for use in humans. However, the scientific community has been working hard to overcome this challenge. In this sense, we aim to describe here an update on the development of fungal vaccines and the progress of methodological and experimental immunotherapies against fungal infections. In addition, advances in immunoinformatic tools are described as an important aid by which to overcome the difficulty of achieving success in fungal vaccine development. In silico approaches are great options for the most important and difficult questions regarding the attainment of an efficient fungal vaccine. Here, we suggest how bioinformatic tools could contribute, considering the main challenges, to an effective fungal vaccine.