Beta-ketoacyl-(acyl-carrier-protein) Synthase III - Therapeutic Potential

Therapeutic Potential

In 2005, tuberculosis caused approximately 1.6 million deaths worldwide, 8.8 million people became sick, with 90% of these cases in developing countries, and an estimated one-third of the world's population has latent TB. Despite the availability of the BCG vaccine and multiple antibiotics, until 2005 TB resurged due to multi-drug resistance, exacerbated by incubation in immune compromised AIDS victims, drug treatment non-compliance, and ongoing systemic deficiencies of health care in developing countries. Mortality and infection rates appear to have peaked, but TB remains a serious global problem. New effective drugs are needed to combat this disease. Inhibitors against mtFabH, or against other enzymes of the FAS-II pathway may have broader utility, such as the treatment of multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and Plasmodium falciparum, the causative agent of another serious refractory problem, malaria.

Given the predominance of TB in poor countries, the commercial incentive to develop new drugs has been hampered, along with complacency and reliance on old, well established, "first-line" drugs such as Rifampicin, Isoniazid, Pyrazinamide, and Ethambutol. The price point is already very low: US$16–35 will buy a full six month drug course Nevertheless, new drugs are in clinical trials.

According to the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, sales of first-line TB drugs are projected to be approximately US$315 million per year, and US$54 million for second-line treatments, yet the global economic toll of TB is at least $12 billion each year.