Fermentation for Antifungal Agents

With fermentation expertise and strong fermentation capabilities, BOC Sciences offers the one-stop fermentation CDMO service to help our customers develop and produce antifungal agents. Our quality services focus on fermentation-related projects that meet the needs of our clients in the pharmaceutical, personal care, and health industries.

Introduction of Antifungal Agents

Secondary metabolites are naturally occurring substances and microorganisms can be a source of therapeutically useful secondary metabolites. At present, secondary metabolites still appear to be a potential source of new antifungal agents. In addition, many secondary metabolites are precursor structures that are semi-synthesized to form compounds with improved pharmacological properties.

The antifungal agents are fungicides or fungistatics used to treat and prevent mycosis. The development of antifungal agents is more difficult than the development of antimicrobial agents. Because fungi are eukaryotes, most substances that are toxic to fungi are also toxic to their hosts. In addition, the evaluation of the activity of potential compounds against fungi is complicated by the fact that fungi are usually slow growing and usually exist in a multicellular form.

So far, much progress has still been made in the development of antifungal agents. Antifungal agents include chemically synthesized drugs such as azoles (e.g. imidazoles, triazoles, thiazoles) and allylamines, as well as natural products of microorganisms, such as polyenes, echinocandins, and triterpenoids. The development of new antifungal agents, preferably naturally occurring ones with novel mechanisms of action, is an urgent medical need. The production of antifungal agents is not uncommon in microorganisms. A range of antifungal agents of microbial origin can be produced by microbial fermentation.

Classification of Fermented Antifungal Agents

A variety of compounds isolated from microbial natural products for the treatment of fungal infections have contributed to the improvement of human health. These compounds are classified according to their mechanism of action: inhibitors of cell wall biosynthesis, inhibitors of sphingolipid synthesis, inhibitors of protein synthesis, etc. They are classified according to their chemical nature: polyenes, lipopeptides, and triterpenoids.

Fermented Polyenes

Polyenes are a class of broad-spectrum antifungal compounds with a macrocyclic lactone structure containing alternating conjugated double bonds. The polyene antibiotics are all products of the Streptomyces. They interact with sterols in the cell membrane (ergosterol in fungal cells, cholesterol in human cells) to form channels through the cell membrane. Common polyene antifungal agents are mycophenolate, amphotericin B, and pimaricin.

Fermented Lipopeptides

Lipopeptides are molecules composed of lipids linked to peptides. Lipopeptides are a class of microbial secondary metabolites, usually from the Bacillus, Pseudomonas and Streptomyces. Some lipopeptides show antifungal activity. For example, echinocandins target fungal cell walls by inhibiting the synthesis of α-1,3-d-glucan, a key cell wall component of many pathogenic fungi. Echinocandins have fungicidal effects against certain yeasts, such as Candida.

Fermented Triterpenoids

Triterpenoids are compounds with a carbon skeleton based on six isoprene units. Triterpenoids are the most structurally diverse natural products and are widely distributed in bacteria, fungi, and plants. Some triterpenoids isolated from microorganisms have antifungal effects. For example, Ibrexafungerp is a triterpenoid antifungal agent that produces fungicidal activity against Candida spp. Similar to echinocandins, ibrexafunerp inhibits glucan synthase, thus preventing the formation of fungal cell walls.

Our Services

Discovery and development of antifungal agents
Fermentation production of antifungal agents
Modification of natural antifungal agents
Fermentation and semi-synthesis of antifungal agents
Fermentation scale-up

Why Choose BOC Sciences?

BOC Sciences has a complete R&D platform and supporting equipment, as well as experience in microbial pharmaceutical development with GMP-compliant quality systems. We have the capability to provide solutions for the development and biomanufacturing of antifungal active ingredients.

Large-scale fermentation capacity of over 100,000 liters
Fast turnaround times and seamless manufacturing processes
Highest quality and priority
Patented and proprietary manufacturing method
Lowest cost of production
Highest volume and availability of supply
Production process control and tracking