Les nouveaux antituberculeux

Tuberculosis had killed around 1.7 millions people around the world in 2006. Its lethal combination with AIDS and the dispersal of multiresistance (extended or not) show the emergency of the care of this disease. Hopefully, the research comes over to bring new antituberculosis drugs among old and new molecules. Some clinical trials gave unexpected results. Amongst the marketed drugs, are moxifloxacin, gatifloxacin, linezolid, rifapentin and rifabutin. Further studies are needed to assure about the efficacy of fluoroquinolones. The efficiency of linezolid is counterbalanced by its toxicity. The antimycobacterial activity of rifamycins is well-known and already used in many countries. The news drugs are PA-824, OPC-67683, the diarylquinolone TMC207, the diamine SQ109 and the pyrroles. For most of them, targets are not well-known. If PA-824 must proceed through other clinical trials, the other components are to go through phase II of clinical trials (OPC-67683, TMC207, SQ109) or phase I (pyrroles). Research is going ahead: many new molecules are going through preclinical trials.