Chalcones as Anti-Infective Agents for Effective Management of Tuberculosis

After the pandemic COVID-19, global health agencies remind us that tuberculosis is the deadliest infectious disease worldwide. As per WHO reports, approximately ten million people are infected with tuberculosis every year. Only a small portion of global cases receive imperative life-saving medicines. Even in the face of enduring efforts in the discovery of effective management of tuberculosis, the disease remains to affect millions of patients worldwide, with a high rate of morbidity and mortality. Considering the low treatment success, high drug treatment failure, and resistance to existing antituberculosis drugs, there is an urgency for the development of new chemical entities as antituberculosis agents. The development of resistance in tuberculosis (TB) patients to the medications used to treat and prevent the disease presents a significant challenge worldwide. Extensive research confines the molecules to counteract this disease has led to identifying many inhibitory pharmacophores. A wide range of compounds has been screened to find a novel ideal drug candidate for curing tuberculosis. Chalcone and its derivatives are considered precursors of flavonoids and isoflavonoids and display a diverse array of reported pharmacological activities including anti-inflammatory and antituberculosis activities. As this field continues to evolve, these molecules present further opportunities for understanding the mechanism of antituberculosis action and the treatment of MDR. Here, we summarize the impact of chalcone derivatives in tuberculosis treatment. The current statuses of various synthetic chalcone-based approaches for tuberculosis treatment are systematically reviewed here.