Abstract:

Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is a common disease that affects women′s quality of life. About 75% of women will be infected at least once in their lifetime, and VVC causes an economic burden of $1.8 billion each year. At present, treatment of VVC commonly used in clinic mainly includes azoles and polyenes. However, with the long-term use of clinical antifungal drugs, candida phenotype changes, virulence factor mutates, and non-candida infections increase, which pose challenges to the therapeutic effects of traditional antifungal drugs. We urgently need to develop new effective ones. For the treatment of VVC, the vaccines currently in clinical trials include PEV7 and NDV3, the drugs in the laboratory development stage are probiotics, antimicrobial peptides, herbs, nanoparticles, and some drugs include VT-1161, CD101, soluble β-glucan etc. have also shown antifungal effects in the research stage and are expected to be candidate drugs for the treatment of VVC. In general, the incidence and recurrence rate of VVC is high, there is an urgent need for new antibacterial drugs to improve the quality of life of patients and reduce the medical economic burden.

Key words: Candidiasis,vulvovaginal, Candida albicans, Antifungal agents, Vaccines, Therapy, Vulvovaginal candidiasis