TB has represented a major challenge worldwide and is the first/top leading cause of death from a single infectious microorganism ( 1).Īlthough the TB causing pathogen was first identified at the end of the nineteenth century, effective drugs against Mtb were only introduced during the second half of the twentieth century XXs: streptomycin first, followed by isoniazid (INH), pyrazinamide (PZA), ethambutol (EMB), and rifampicin (RIF).
Statistical analysis of epidemiological data have been shown a steady increase of the disease incidences over the past decade and new drug-resistant forms of TB cases are currently more than 5% of the total. Tuberculosis (TB) is currently one of the most devastating infectious diseases having caused around 1.8 million human deaths, with 10.4 million new cases reported in 2016 and approximately a third of the world’s population harboring its persistent form of the disease-causing pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) ( 1). A better understanding on the mechanisms of action of human endogenous peptides should ensure the basis for the best guided design of novel antitubercular chemotherapeutics.
In this review, we have provided an up to date perspective of the current research on AMPs to be applied in the fight against TB. We are confident that novel antibiotics based on human AMPs displaying a rapid and multifaceted mechanism, with reduced toxicity, should significantly contribute to reverse the tide of antimycobacterial drug resistance. In this context, we should not underestimate our endogenous antimicrobial proteins and peptides as ancient players of the human host defense system. In particular, there is an urgent need to integrate all available interdisciplinary strategies to eradicate extensively drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains. A large amount of literature is now accessible on the AMP mechanisms of action against a diversity of pathogens nevertheless, research on their activity on mycobacteria is still scarce. Despite of the serious effort that has been applied to develop effective antitubercular chemotherapies, the potential of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) remains underexploited. Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a devastating infectious disease and remerges as a global health emergency due to an alarming rise of antimicrobial resistance to its treatment. 2Mycobacteria Research Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Birkbeck University of London, London, United Kingdom.1Faculty of Biosciences, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain.
0 kommentar(er)
