Antifungal antibodies: a new approach to the treatment of systemic candidiasis.

Antibody-based therapeutics have come of age, with advances in the genetic engineering of recombinant antibodies allowing application of a growing knowledge of the immunopathology of diseases to the development of novel drugs. For infections such as systemic candidiasis, which still have a mortality of 40 to 50%, antifungal antibodies could provide long-awaited novel therapies for use in combination with antifungal agents. They may also evolve into safe, broad-spectrum agents for prophylaxis in high-risk immunocompromised patients. Mycograb, a human genetically recombinant antibody against heat shock protein 90 (hsp90), has just started trials in patients with systemic candidiasis.