Tuberculosis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Tuberculosis, including details on symptoms, causes, treatment, pulmonary, mycobacterium.

New tuberculosis therapeutics: a growing pipeline.

Spigelman MK

The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, New York, NY 10004, USA. melvin.spigelman@tballiance.org

Novel chemotherapeutic drugs are needed to improve tuberculosis (TB) control, especially in the developing world. Given the magnitude of the problem and the resources available in countries that have the highest burden of disease, the present standards of care for the treatment of drug-susceptible TB, drug-resistant TB, TB/human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfection, and latent TB infection are all unsatisfactory. Because no truly novel compounds for the treatment of TB have been discovered in the past 40 years, the recent enhanced activity in the research and development of new TB drugs is extremely encouraging. Seven compounds are presently in clinical development specifically for the treatment of TB. Other known antibiotic compound families are being investigated preclinically, in an attempt to identify new antimicrobial drugs with specific antituberculous activity. In addition, novel targets have been identified and are the subject of efforts to validate their potential usefulness in the treatment of TB.

Published 12 July 2007 in J Infect Dis, 196: S28-34.
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