Prospects for new antitubercular drugs

Curr Opin Microbiol. 2004 Oct;7(5):460-5. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2004.08.011.

Abstract

The inexorable rise in cases of tuberculosis worldwide, fuelled by the HIV epidemic, highlights the need for new drugs and particularly those that can shorten the duration of treatment. Clinical trials of existing broad-spectrum agents such as the fluoroquinolone moxifloxacin are proceeding, on the basis of efficacy in models of infection and preliminary clinical data. These may provide a stopgap, but the real breakthrough will come when novel agents with potent sterilising activity are discovered. Few such novel pre-clinical drug candidates exist and therefore considerable effort is being exerted to employ new tools to identify drug targets essential for survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antitubercular Agents / administration & dosage
  • Antitubercular Agents / pharmacology*
  • Antitubercular Agents / therapeutic use*
  • Drug Evaluation, Preclinical*
  • Humans
  • Mycobacterium tuberculosis / drug effects*
  • Quinolones / pharmacology
  • Quinolones / therapeutic use
  • Rifamycins / pharmacology
  • Rifamycins / therapeutic use
  • Tuberculosis / drug therapy*
  • Tuberculosis / epidemiology

Substances

  • Antitubercular Agents
  • Quinolones
  • Rifamycins