Recent Advancements in Antimycobacterial and Antifungal Drugs: A Patent Perspective

Background: Infections caused by Mycobacterium and pathogenic fungi have risen drastically over the past few decades. Moreover, with the increase in the number of immunocompromised (burn, organ transplant, chemotherapy, HIV) patients, these bacterial and fungal infections have led to alarming mortality rates. The drugs currently in use have become relatively ineffective due to ever increasing phenomenon of multidrug resistance. Furthermore, these drugs suffer with severe toxicity effects and also lack cost effectiveness. Objective: Under such compelling circumstances, it is pertinent to find novel and safer drugs with improved properties. One strategy that could be adopted is to identify natural bioactive compounds having antimicrobial potential with minimal side effects. Alternatively, drugs synthesized with the help of combinatorial chemistry leading to enhanced antimicrobial properties could be another strategy. Result: This article summarizes at a common platform the current scenario of the available natural as well as synthetic drugs targeting cell envelope that have patentable therapeutic interventions against predominant human bacterial and fungal pathogens.