New research from the University of Georgia has shown, for the first time, that compounds used to fight fungal diseases in plants are causing resistance to antifungal medications used to treat people.
New research from the University of Georgia has shown, for the first time, that compounds used to fight fungal diseases in plants are causing resistance to antifungal medications used to treat people.
The study focused on Aspergillus fumigatus, the fungus that causes aspergillosis, a disease that causes life-threatening infections in 300,000 people globally each year. Published in G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics, the study linked agricultural use of azoles—compounds used to fight fungal diseases in plants—to diminished effectiveness of the clinical azoles used to treat fungal infections in patients.
“Our results show that resistance to the compounds used to combat fungal infections in humans is developing in agricultural environments,” said Marin T. Brewer, a corresponding author of the study and an associate professor of mycology in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “The samples that we collected in agricultural settings were resistant to both the azoles used in the environment and the clinical azoles used to treat people.”
Read more at: University of Georgia
