TB became again an important infectious disease worldwide in the mid-
1980´s, and several factors are responsible for this, such as AIDS epidemic, the advent
of multidrug resistant strains (MDR), poor socioeconomic condition and immigration.
Unfortunately, due to the disadvantages of the first and second line drugs, and the
increase of MDR strains worldwide, nowadays we urgent need new drugs to improve
the TB treatment or a tragedy can happen. Considering this problem, several actions
have been made, and in 2000 it was established the Global Alliance for TB Drug
Development (GATB; www.tballiance.org). In this context, GATB have been working
in partnership with different kinds of organizations, such as academic institutions,
government research laboratories, non-governmental organizations, pharmaceutical
industries and contract research houses. Due to its important work, GATB have changed
the perspective of TB drug discovery. Considering that, this chapter aims to highlight
synthetic compounds from different chemical classes, which were evaluated against M.
tuberculosis in the last fifteen years.
Keywords: Tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, chemistry, synthetic
compound, synthesis, drug development, treatment, multi-drug-resistant
tuberculosis (MDR TB), extensive-drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB), target,
mechanism of action, biological evaluation.