TB Alliance, 40 Wall Street, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10005, USA.
Future Med Chem. 2011 Sep;3(11):1373-400. doi: 10.4155/fmc.11.115.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a difficult pathogen to combat and the first-line drugs currently in use are 40-60 years old. The need for new TB drugs is urgent, but the time to identify, develop and ultimately advance new drug regimens onto the market has been excruciatingly slow. On the other hand, the drugs currently in clinical development, and the recent gains in knowledge of the pathogen and the disease itself give us hope for finding new drug targets and new drug leads. In this article we highlight the unique biology of the pathogen and several possible ways to identify new TB chemical leads. The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to accelerate the discovery and development of new TB drugs. The organization carries out research and development in collaboration with many academic laboratories and pharmaceutical companies around the world. In this perspective we will focus on the early discovery phases of drug development and try to provide snapshots of both the current status and future prospects.
结核分枝杆菌是一种难以对付的病原体，目前使用的一线药物已有 40-60 年的历史。新的结核病药物的需求迫在眉睫，但从发现、开发到最终将新的药物方案推向市场的时间却极其缓慢。另一方面，目前正在临床开发的药物，以及最近在病原体和疾病本身方面的知识进展，让我们有希望找到新的药物靶点和新的药物先导化合物。在本文中，我们将重点介绍病原体的独特生物学特性，以及几种可能的方法来识别新的结核病化学先导化合物。全球结核病药物开发联盟（TB 联盟）是一个非营利性组织，其使命是加速新的结核病药物的发现和开发。该组织与全球许多学术实验室和制药公司合作开展研发工作。在本观点文章中，我们将重点关注药物开发的早期发现阶段，并尝试提供当前状况和未来前景的快照。
