| Abstract: | Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in more than one-third of the world population. Its impact on global health is a result of decades of neglect for such an important infectious disease, lack of resources for national TB control programs, poor case detection, and inadequate/inappropriate therapy in high-burden countries. The worldwide dissemination of multidrug (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis poses a serious threat to human health due to inadequacy of long and cumbersome tuberculosis (TB) therapy. Treatment regimens consist of at least four drugs with different mechanisms of action. Several new molecules in clinical development hasencouraged the scientific community to discover new drug targets and new drug candidates. Therefore, new drugs are urgently needed to shorten and improve the treatment course in drug resistant TB, and to minimize the occurrence of new infections and death. Nowadays, various new investigational drugs, such as bedaquine (TMC207), nitroimidazoles (PA-824, OPC-67683), diamines (SQ109), oxazolidinones (Linezolid, PNU-100480 (Sutezolid), ADZ5847), pyrroles (LL3858) and fluoroquinolones (moxifloxacin and gatifloxacin), have entered clinical trials and are in progress to be developed for the treatment of MDR-TB. In this perspectivearticle, an overview of the new anti-TB drugs with different structures that are either being clinically used or in advanced stages clinical stages as well as of preclinical development are presented. This review provides snapshots of the efforts that are being made in the development of new drugs as lead anti-TB agents. Finally, it is crucial to improve the connection between research and development institutes, industries, drug control authorities, and international policy-making bodies to deliver efficacious therapies for patients who are suffering from TB. |
