Giovanni Stelitano

Mycobacterium abscessus is an emerging opportunistic pathogen that infects mainly the respiratory tract of individuals with pre-existing clinical pictures. In recent years, the incidence of infections of this microorganism has risen, in particular in patients with cystic fibrosis, leading to an exacerbation of their conditions. The actual therapeutic regimen has low efficacy and is extended for long periods since it is mainly based on a combination of repurposed drugs, generally from treatments of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections. For this reason, it is necessary to develop new drugs or alternative strategies in order to improve the efficacy and shorten the time of treatments. This review aims to give an overview of drugs in the pre-clinical and clinical phases of evaluation against M. abscessus and the molecules that have been in development for the past five years in the early drug-discovery phase.