Surface-Modified Drug Delivery Systems for Tuberculosis Intervention

Tuberculosis (TB) presents as the second most lethal infectious disease after HIV/AIDS and has presented difficulty in treatment over the years, due to prolonged duration of therapy and side effects of the drugs resulting in patient non-compliance and the development of multidrug resistance (MDR) strains. Anti-TB drugs incorporated in nanosystems may reduce side effects by delivering the drug selectively into infection reservoirs such as macrophages, which may assist in clearing the TB bacilli faster and reducing the duration of therapy. The rapid development of nanosciences has improved the targeted delivery of therapeutics, offering great benefits in the treatment of chronic diseases. Nanosystems demonstrate great prospect by specific and selective targeting, supported by their ability to be surface functionalized with targeting ligands. This chapter will therefore demonstrate the state of the art in the development of surface-modified nanotechnology incorporated with anti-TB therapeutics.