Challenges Facing Antitubercular Therapy: New Drugs and Delivery Systems

Tuberculosis (TB) has again emerged as a challenging disease, victimizing a large section of the world population. Long duration of therapy, drug resistance, side effects associated with large doses of number of drugs, and economic reasons have resulted in poor patient compliance and in ineffective anti-TB therapy. In addition, drug-resistant strains of tubercle bacilli have further compounded the problem. In this article challenges facing present therapy, the mode of tuberculosis infection, challenges facing fixed-dose combination (FDC) formulation, new anti-TB molecules from the modification of existing anti-TB drugs for better activity, new molecules acting on the novel targets for reducing bacterial pathogenicity, antibiotics and nonantibiotics exhibiting anti-TB activity, and new drug delivery systems are discussed.