{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,12]],"date-time":"2026-10-12T21:19:07Z","timestamp":1791839947586,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":58,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,30]],"date-time":"2022-03-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1648598400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000002","name":"National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["R21 AI148890"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R21 AI148890"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000002","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000002","name":"National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["R01 AI162989"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01 AI162989"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000002","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JoF"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Mucormycosis (a.k.a. zygomycosis) is an often-life-threatening disease caused by fungi from the ancient fungal division Mucoromycota. Globally, there are nearly a million people with the disease. Rhizopus spp., and R. delemar (R. oryzae, R. arrhizus) in particular, are responsible for most of the diagnosed cases. Pulmonary, rhino-orbito-cerebral, and invasive mucormycosis are most effectively treated with amphotericin B (AmB) and particularly with liposomal formulations (e.g., AmBisome\u00ae). However, even after antifungal therapy, there is still a 50% mortality rate. Hence, there is a critical need to improve therapeutics for mucormycosis. Targeting AmB-loaded liposomes (AmB-LLs) with the pathogen receptor Dectin-1 (DEC1-AmB-LLs) to the beta-glucans expressed on the surface of Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida albicans lowers the effective dose required to kill cells relative to untargeted AmB-LLs. Because Dectin-1 is an immune receptor for R. delemar infections and may bind it directly, we explored the Dectin-1-mediated delivery of liposomal AmB to R. delemar. DEC1-AmB-LLs bound 100- to 1000-fold more efficiently to the exopolysaccharide matrix of R. delemar germlings and mature hyphae relative to AmB-LLs. DEC1-AmB-LLs delivering sub-micromolar concentrations of AmB were an order of magnitude more efficient at inhibiting and\/or killing R. delemar than AmB-LLs. Targeted antifungal drug-loaded liposomes have the potential to improve the treatment of mucormycosis.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jof8040352","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,30]],"date-time":"2022-03-30T21:28:39Z","timestamp":1648675719000},"page":"352","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["Targeted Delivery of Antifungal Liposomes to Rhizopus delemar"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"8","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9407-112X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Quanita J.","family":"Choudhury","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Suresh","family":"Ambati","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zachary A.","family":"Lewis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Richard B.","family":"Meagher","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Prakash, H., and Chakrabarti, A. 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