Antituberculosis Drug Research: A Critical Overview

The increasing drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to the currently used drugs and HIV coinfection has caused alarm in the international scientific community. Subsequently, there is an urgent need for the development of new drug molecules with newer targets and with an alternative mechanism of action. Since the last 50 years, the same long-duration, multidrug treatment plan is being followed for the treatment of tuberculosis. The objective of this review article is to critically analyze the antitubercular potential of various classes of compounds (quinoline, diamine, quinolone, fluoroquinolone, quinone, nitroimidazole, terpenoid, isonicotinyl, oxazolidinone, pyrimidine, and purine), their possibility to be a future drug candidate, and latest information on the clinical status of some novel antitubercular compounds. Compounds such as moxifloxacin, PA824, and TMC207 are well tolerated and there is no adverse effect shown by them. Moxifloxacin and gatifloxacin shows cross-resistance to the currently used drugs while no cross-resistance observed in case of TMC207 and PA824. Some compounds like OPC67683 and PA824 are bactericidal in nature.