New Potential Targets for Fighting against Multi - Drug Resistant Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis has re-emerged as a serious public health threat worldwide because of a significant increase in multiple drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis varieties and a synergy between HIV and M. tuberculosis infection. It has been over 40 years since a new drug for tuberculosis has been discovered. The increasing emergence of drug resistant TB, and HIV infection, which compromises host defense and allows latent infection to reactivate or render individuals more susceptible to TB, pose further challenges for effective control of the disease. Although TB can be cured with chemotherapy, the treatment is exceedingly lengthy and takes 6–9 months. There is now recognition that new drugs to treat TB are urgently required, specifically for use in shorter treatment regimens than are possible with the current agents and which can be employed to treat multidrug-resistant and latent disease.