Challenges and Potential of Antibody-Drug Conjugates as Prospective Tuberculosis Therapeutics.

ABSTRACT: Tuberculosis (TB), primarily caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), remains a leading cause of infectious disease mortality worldwide. Global TB control efforts face several hurdles, including the lack of a broadly effective vaccine, limited sensitivity of current diagnostics, particularly for paucibacillary and extrapulmonary TB, and significant adverse effects associated with prolonged small-molecule drug regimens. The growing prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains further underscores the urgent need for innovative therapeutic strategies. We outline characteristics of next-generation TB therapeutics. We show that antibody (Ab)-drug conjugates (ADCs) satisfy many of those desirable characteristics. Since a major hurdle to this appr

SUBMITTER: Foreman KW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12566324 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature