Tuberculosis: how it infects, how it is currently treated, and the future of treatments

Abstract

Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is the deadliest bacterial disease in the world. In most patients (around 2 billion), it remains latent in their lungs, but in others, it is an active infection, especially in those who are immunocompromised. There are very few treatment regimens that can be followed, all including taking at least four antibiotics at once over a months-long period. Antibiotic resistance has become a massive issue when treating tuberculosis, which means more effective medications need to be found to fight these resistant strains. Many efforts are being made to approve new drugs to treat tuberculosis, especially those in which a genetic target, such as a gene or enzyme involved in transcription, ATP synthesis, or stability of the cell wall, is selected, and then experiments are done to see what antibiotics affect it the best. Some of these medications are in the earlier stages of experimentation while others have reached clinical trials, which could eventually lead to the first approved antibiotic to fight against tuberculosis in ten years.