Protein kinases as antituberculosis targets: The case of thymidylate kinases

Abstract

This review is a concise summary of studies involving the design, synthesis and characterization of potential inhibitors against thymidylate kinase of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis inspite of being an ancient disease still continues to be a leading cause of death in the world. The increasing emergence of drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of the challenges in the complete elimination of tuberculosis. Thus, there is an undeniable need to develop novel treatment strategies to combat this deadly pathogen. Several protein targets are being investigated in Mycobacterium tuberculosis with an aim to develop the most potent and selective antituberculosis agents. It is not surprising that protein kinases, the key regulators of metabolism in almost all organisms are one of the major targets explored in antituberculosis drug discovery. Thymidylate kinases, a well established antiviral and anticancer target has garnered significant attention in the past twenty years in the development of prospective antituberculosis agents. A comprehensive analysis of such studies will provide a better understanding on the druggability of thymidylate kinase and also, will enable to refine the future drug designing studies on this attractive drug target of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.