The wide spread of opportunistic fungal infections among several immunocompromised patients has become a major health concern. A surge in the prevalence of multi drug resistant pathogenic fungi mainly Candida and Aspergillus sp. to current antifungals has lead scientists to search for new lead compounds which can address the issues of emerging fungal infections. Majority of the antifungals used currently are less effective against these pathogens and scenario of developing resistance to azoles is also a major concern. The marine environment has become a greatest treasure house for a large number of bioactive compounds due to its extreme habitat. Several bioactive compounds have been extracted and characterized from marine sources. Nevertheless, identification of antifungal compounds from marine sources especially from marine actinobacteria is less investigated so far. The existing antifungal compounds have several limitations like toxicity, poor biocompatibility and low efficacy. Hence, the development of novel antifungal compounds from marine actinobacteria with greater potency can be an attractive solution to fight this hurdle of fungal infections. From active investigation and studies reported so far, antifungal compounds from marine actinobacteria have been addressed in this review. In addition to that, this review also focuses on actinobacteria mediated nanoparticles in the treatment of opportunistic fungal infections. Nanoparticles can be a promising approach in antifungal therapy due to their nanoscale size and surface properties which enhances treatment efficacy through disruption of fungal cell membranes. Therefore, marine antifungal compounds along with the application of nanotechnology hope to contribute better solutions to opportunistic fungal infections.

Marine Biotechnology Laboratory Department of Biomedical Sciences School of Biosciences and Technology Vellore Institute of Technology Vellore Tamil Nadu 632014 India

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