Harnessing the power of fungal siderophores for the imaging and treatment of human diseases

Natural siderophores are generally not species-specific; they exhibit broad-spectrum activity and can be recognized by various types of microorganisms. Moreover, they generally miss proper sites for incorporating additional functionalities; e.g. fluorescent probes, surface-adhesive moieties or drug molecules, to be used for imaging and/or as therapeutic conjugates smuggled into microbial species via siderophore recognition and a 'Trojan Horse' strategy. Biomimetic analogues can overcome both these limitations and offer novel tools for both diagnostics and therapeutics. Siderophore mimics with a narrow spectrum of activity offer the possibility of developing selective diagnostic tools, while those with broad-spectrum activity may find therapeutic applications as antifungal drug delivery tools.