Neoteric advancement in TB drugs and an overview on the anti-tubercular role of peptides through computational approaches.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a devastating threat to human health whose treatment without the emergence of drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) is the million-dollar question at present. The pathogenesis of M. tuberculosis has been extensively studied which represents unique defence strategies by infecting macrophages. Several anti-tubercular drugs with varied mode of action and administration from diversified sources have been used for the treatment of TB that later contributed to the emergence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB). However, few of potent anti-tubercular drugs are scheduled for clinical trials status in 2017-2018. Peptides of varied origins such as human immune cells and non-immune cells, bacteria, fungi, and venoms have been widely investigated as anti-tubercular agents for the replacement of existing anti-tubercular drugs in future. In the present review, we spotlighted not only on the mechanisms of action and mode of administration of currently available anti-tubercular drugs but also the recent comprehensive report of World Health Organization (WHO) on TB epidemic, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. The major excerpt of the study also inspects the direct contribution of different computational tools during drug designing strategies against M. tuberculosis in order to grasp the interplay between anti-tubercular peptides and targeted bacterial protein. The potentiality of some of these anti-tubercular peptides as therapeutic agents unlocks a new portal for achieving the goal of end TB strategy.