About this Research Topic
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB) in humans, was responsible for the highest number of deaths caused by infectious diseases worldwide in 2015, exceeding even human immunodeficiency virus-caused deaths (HIV). The World Health Organization (WHO) reported 9.6 million new cases and 2 million deaths worldwide in the same year. It was estimated that one third of the world population are infected with the latent form of TB, which treatment is often ineffective due to the lack of drugs that act in the dormant state of the mycobacteria. Furthermore, increased dissemination of multidrug-resistant (MDR), extensively drug-resistant (XDR) and totally drug-resistant (TDR) strains has become a huge challenge to be overcome throughout the world in the fight against TB.
For the treatment, WHO recommends a combination of isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RMP), ethambutol (EMB) and pyrazinamide (PZA) for 6 months. In those cases involving resistance, the treatment can be extended up to 28 months and includes the use of second-line drugs, such as fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides, D-cycloserine (DCS), linezolid (LZD) among others. The current treatment presents several limitations, including prolonged standard regimen, high rate of treatment discontinuation, adverse effects, toxicity, drug-drug interactions and lack of effectiveness against the latent mycobacteria. Nanotechnology drug delivery systems have considerable potential for the treatment of tuberculosis. The systems can also be designed to allow for the sustained release of drugs from the matrix and drug delivery to specific target. Based on these aspects, new drugs against tuberculosis is highly needed.
In this Research Topic we invite an experts on TB Drug Discovery to share their acknowledges with us. This require the coordinated effort of multiple scientific disciplines as microbiology, pharmacology, chemistry, medical and correlated.
We welcome all types of articles acceptable in the section:
http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/microbiology/section/antimicrobials-resistance-and-chemotherapy#article-types. We do not consider article types such as Case Reports or Communications.
For the treatment, WHO recommends a combination of isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RMP), ethambutol (EMB) and pyrazinamide (PZA) for 6 months. In those cases involving resistance, the treatment can be extended up to 28 months and includes the use of second-line drugs, such as fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides, D-cycloserine (DCS), linezolid (LZD) among others. The current treatment presents several limitations, including prolonged standard regimen, high rate of treatment discontinuation, adverse effects, toxicity, drug-drug interactions and lack of effectiveness against the latent mycobacteria. Nanotechnology drug delivery systems have considerable potential for the treatment of tuberculosis. The systems can also be designed to allow for the sustained release of drugs from the matrix and drug delivery to specific target. Based on these aspects, new drugs against tuberculosis is highly needed.
In this Research Topic we invite an experts on TB Drug Discovery to share their acknowledges with us. This require the coordinated effort of multiple scientific disciplines as microbiology, pharmacology, chemistry, medical and correlated.
We welcome all types of articles acceptable in the section:
http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/microbiology/section/antimicrobials-resistance-and-chemotherapy#article-types. We do not consider article types such as Case Reports or Communications.
Keywords: Drug Discovery, tuberculosis, antimicrobials, new regimens, medicinal chemistry, nanotechnology
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
