Potent, puzzling and (now less) toxic: Team discovers how antifungal drug works

Scientists have solved a decades-old medical mystery -- and in the process have found a potentially less toxic way to fight invasive fungal infections, which kill about 1.5 million people a year. The researchers say they now understand the mechanism of action of amphotericin, an antifungal drug that has been in use for more than 50 years -- even though it is nearly as toxic to human cells as it is to the microbes it attacks.