Prospects for the Development of New Anti-TB Drugs Based on Novel Targets Related to the Host-Parasite Relationship in Tuberculosis
Haruaki Tomioka
from: Emerging Trends in Antibacterial Discovery: Answering the Call to Arms (Edited by: Alita A. Miller and Paul F. Miller). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2011)
Abstract
Worldwide, tuberculosis (TB) remains the most frequent and important infectious disease to cause morbidity and death. However, the development of new drugs for the treatment and prophylaxis of TB has been slow. Therefore, novel types of antituberculous drugs, which act on the unique drug targets in MTB pathogens, particularly the drug targts related to the establishment of mycobacterial dormancy in host's macrophages, are urgently needed. In this context, it should be noted that current anti-TB drugs mostly target the metabolic reactions and proteins which are essential for the growth of MTB in extracellular milieus. It may also be promising to develop another type of drug that exerts an inhibitory action against bacterial virulence factors which cross talk and interfer with signaling pathways of MTB-infected host immunocompetent cells such as lymphocytes, macrophages and NK cells, thereby changing the intracelluar milieus favorable to intramacrophage survival and growth of infected bacilli. In this chapter, I will describe recent approaches to identify and establish novel potential drug targets in MTB, especially those related to mycobacterial dormancy and cross-talk with cellular signaling pathways read more ...
