Ling Ding

Developing alligamycin to fight off invasive fungal infections

Ling Ding and team

From left to right: Yijun Qiao, Ling Ding, Daniel Jordan Otto, Matiss Maleckis, Jens William Kindtler.


Applicant

Ling Ding.


Project drescription

Invasive fungal diseases have an annual incidence of 6.5 million invasive fungal infections and 3.8 million deaths. The high mortality rates and limited treatment call for new antifungals.

We discovered a novel class of antifungal agent alligamycin from a soil filamentous bacterium.

Alligamycin displayed profound antifungal effects against numerous fungal pathogens, e.g Talaromyces species and several clinically relevant Aspergillus species such as Aspergillus niger, A. tubingensis, A. terreus and the azole-resistant A. calidoustus. Proteomics analysis revealed alligamycin potentially disrupted the integrity of fungal cell walls. Alligamycin represents a new class of potential drug candidate to combat fungal infections.


Institution

Technical University of Denmark.