ADVANCES IN TB DRUG DEVELOPMENT: A NOTE ON DERIVATIVES OF ISONIAZID AND PYRAZINAMIDE

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the main causes of death from an infectious disease till date. Recent data shows that currently 9.6 million people are infected with TB. Over 95% of TB deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries and it is among the top 5 causes of death for women aged 15 to 44. TB is a leading killer of HIV-positive people and around 1 in 3HIV deaths was due to TB. Furthermore, multidrug-resistant (MDR)-TB and extensively drug-resistant (XDR)-TB is spreading and poses a major threat to progress in global TB control program. The emergence of drug resistant TB strains makes the invention of new molecular scaffold a priority. One of the possible strategies to overcome drug resistance in an economic and simple manner would involve re-engineering and repositioning of some old drugs to obtain derivatives that can work on resistant TB bacilli. These may have enhanced bioavailability, be more effective, and serve as cost-effective substitutes, as compared to new drugs identified through conventional methods of drug discovery and development. In view of this, the present review aims to provide a summarizing report on the derivatives of first-line drugs (isoniazid and pyrazinamide) that have the potential to conquer the resistance to the parental drug and could thus serve as effective alternatives