Development of new antituberculous agents based on new drug targets and structure–activity relationship

Tuberculosis, especially multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, is an important global health concern and the development of new antituberculous drugs is urgently needed. This article deals with the following areas: first, the present status of the development of new antituberculous drugs is reviewed, discussing new promising antituberculous agents, such as nitroimidazoles, diarylquinolines and oxazolidinones; and second, the future development of new antituberculous drugs is discussed according to potential pharmacological targets of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and drug design based on structure-activity relationship (SAR) analysis, especially three-dimensional quantitative SAR. New critical information on the MTB genome and mycobacterial virulence genes will promote the elucidation of the molecular structures of drug targets in MTB, and is useful for the design of new promising antituberculous drugs using quantitative SAR techniques.