1. Academic Validation
  2. Tuberculosis Drug Discovery: Challenges and New Horizons

Tuberculosis Drug Discovery: Challenges and New Horizons

  • J Med Chem. 2022 Jun 9;65(11):7489-7531. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.2c00227.
Guilherme F S Fernandes 1 Andrew M Thompson 2 Daniele Castagnolo 1 William A Denny 2 Jean L Dos Santos 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Chemistry, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AJ, United Kingdom.
  • 2 Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
  • 3 School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Araraquara 14800903, Brazil.
Abstract

Over the past 2000 years, tuberculosis (TB) has claimed more lives than any Other infectious disease. In 2020 alone, TB was responsible for 1.5 million deaths worldwide, comparable to the 1.8 million deaths caused by COVID-19. The World Health Organization has stated that new TB drugs must be developed to end this pandemic. After decades of neglect in this field, a renaissance era of TB drug discovery has arrived, in which many novel candidates have entered clinical trials. However, while hundreds of molecules are reported annually as promising anti-TB agents, very few successfully progress to clinical development. In this Perspective, we critically review those anti-TB compounds published in the last 6 years that demonstrate good in vivo efficacy against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Additionally, we highlight the main challenges and strategies for developing new TB drugs and the current global pipeline of drug candidates in clinical studies to foment fresh research perspectives.

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