Tuberculosis (TB) is a communicable airborne infectious disease caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) that primarily affects the lungs, and can disseminate to other parts of the body. MTB is one of the most dangerous pathogens, killing about 1.4 million people annually worldwide. Although the standard treatment of TB is comprised of four anti-TB drugs, the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensive drug-resistant (XDR) strains in the recent past and associated side effects have affected the tailor-made regimens. Notably, existing therapies approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) can only treat less than 50% of drug-resistant TB. Therefore, an expeditious pace in the TB research is highly needed in search of effective, affordable, least toxic novel drugs with shorter regimens to reach the goals viz. 2020 milestones End TB strategy set by the WHO. Currently, twenty-three drug-like molecules are under investigation in different stages of clinical trials. These newer agents are expected to be effective against the resistant strains. This article summarizes the properties, merits, demerits, and the probability of their success as novel potential therapeutic agents.

中文翻译：

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抗结核药物临床开发的最新进展

结核病 (TB) 是一种由结核分枝杆菌 (MTB) 引起的传染性空气传播传染病，主要影响肺部，并可传播到身体的其他部位。MTB 是最危险的病原体之一，全世界每年约有 140 万人因此丧生。尽管结核病的标准治疗由四种抗结核药物组成，但最近出现的耐多药 (MDR) 和广泛耐药 (XDR) 菌株以及相关的副作用影响了量身定制的治疗方案。值得注意的是，世界卫生组织 (WHO) 批准的现有疗法只能治疗不到 50% 的耐药结核病。因此，急需加快结核病研究的步伐，以寻找有效、负担得起、毒性最小的新药，并以更短的方案实现目标，即。2020 年里程碑 世卫组织制定的终结结核病战略。目前，23 种药物样分子正在临床试验的不同阶段进行研究。预计这些较新的药物可有效对抗耐药菌株。本文总结了它们作为新型潜在治疗剂的特性、优点、缺点和成功的可能性。