Drugs and drug intermediates from fungi: Striving for greener processes

Abstract

There is an ever-increasing demand of newer and improved drugs from biological sources to cater to the bio-pharmaceutical sector. Among various other resources, fungal species have an immense contribution owing to their potential to carry out the bio-transformations and drug synthesis in diverse conditions and in an eco-friendly manner. Advancement in the biotechnological processes has accelerated the process. Genome sequence information of various fungal species has opened newer avenues for improved and faster drug targeting and designing. The review highlights the production of pharmaceutical drugs and drug intermediates like antibiotics, anti-cancer, anti-cholesterol, anti-diabetic, immunosuppressant, anti-anxiety, anti-virals and many other drugs from fungus. Many of these have been commercialized and there are many more which are either in research or in clinical trial phase. There is a need to exploit and explore the vast biota of fungi in the hope of discovering untapped therapeutic uses of the earth’s countless species of fungus.