Candida species can readily colonize a multitude of indwelling devices, leading to biofilm formation. These three-dimensional, surface-associated Candida communities employ a multitude of sophisticated mechanisms to evade treatment, leading to persistent and recurrent infections with high mortality rates. Further complicating matters, the current arsenal of antifungal therapeutics that are effective against biofilms is extremely limited. Antifungal biomaterials are gaining interest as an effective strategy for combating Candida biofilm infections. In this review, we explore biomaterials developed to prevent Candida biofilm formation and those that treat existing biofilms. Surface functionalization of devices employing clinically utilized antifungals, other antifungal molecules, and antifungal polymers has been extremely effective at preventing fungi attachment, which is the first step of biofilm formation. Several mechanisms can lead to this attachment inhibition, including contact killing and release-based killing of surrounding planktonic cells. Eliminating mature biofilms is arguably much more difficult than prevention. Nanoparticles have shown the most promise in disrupting existing biofilms, with the potential to penetrate the dense fungal biofilm matrix and locally target fungal cells. We will describe recent advances in both surface functionalization and nanoparticle therapeutics for the treatment of Candida biofilms.

念珠菌属物种很容易在大量留置装置上定殖，导致生物膜形成。这些三维的、与表面相关的念珠菌属社区采用多种复杂的机制来逃避治疗，导致持续和反复感染，死亡率很高。更复杂的是，目前有效对抗生物膜的抗真菌疗法极其有限。抗真菌生物材料作为对抗真菌的有效策略正在引起人们的兴趣念珠菌属生物膜感染。在这篇综述中，我们探索了为预防念珠菌属生物膜形成和处理现有生物膜的方法。使用临床使用的抗真菌剂、其他抗真菌分子和抗真菌聚合物的装置的表面功能化在防止真菌附着方面非常有效，这是生物膜形成的第一步。有几种机制可以导致这种附着抑制，包括接触杀伤和基于释放的周围浮游细胞的杀伤。消除成熟的生物膜可以说比预防困难得多。纳米颗粒在破坏现有生物膜方面表现出最大的潜力，有可能穿透致密的真菌生物膜基质并局部靶向真菌细胞。我们将描述表面功能化和纳米颗粒治疗的最新进展念珠菌属生物膜。