Chemotherapy of Fungal Diseases: 96 (Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology) - Tapa blanda

Fungal diseases have been with us from antiquity; interest in the chemo­ therapy of fungal disease has exploded in the past decade. To plan and pro­ duce a book on the topic of antifungal chemotherapy has come as a personal challenge - and something of an eye-opener - towards the end of my re­ search career. A landmark publication which still merits reading is Antifungal Chemotherapy (John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK), edited by David Speller, which appeared in 1980. However, the fact that ketoconazole, the first of the modern, orally active, wide-spectrum antifungals, attracted no more than two sentences in it indicates just how far we have come in the 1980s. A steady stream of original papers and a number of conference proceedings have chronicled this progress in drug research; outstanding among the latter are the proceedings of an international telesymposium, entitled Recent Trends in the Discovery, Development and Evaluation of Antifungal Agents, edited by Robert Fromtling (J.R. Prous, Barcelona, 1987) and volume 544 of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, entitled Antifungal Drugs, edited by Vassil St. Georgiev, and containing papers and posters presented at a most enjoyable 3-day conference held at Garden City, New York, in the autumn of 1987.

This handbook charts the processes involved in the discovery, development and final clinical utilization of a new drug for fungal diseases. Its purpose is to help the specialist involved at just one stage appreciate the need for and contributions by the many others involved in the complex process of drug discovery and development. Five groups of readers will benefit from this volume. The experimentalist will find stimulation and provocation concerning approaches to drug discovery and screening. The expert responsible for the evaluation of the safety of drugs will find background information to help deliniate the biochemical, pharmacokinetic and toxicological properties of candidate compounds. The clinician will find an appreciation of the effort necessary to develop new agents. The academic will find an overview of the non-academic aspects; and the manager will see the urgent needs and opportunities which the field of antifungal chemotherapy presents to the pharmaceutical industry.