Introduction: The high susceptibility of human immunodeficiency virus-infected people to tuberculosis (TB), the emergence of multi-drug-resistant (MDR-TB) strains and extensively drug-resistant (XDR-TB) ones, has brought TB into the focus of urgent scientific interest. As a result, there has been an upsurge in recent years to find new anti-TB agents, with the cinnamoyl moiety having been identified as a particularly simple and effective pharmacophore for this purpose.
Areas covered: This review aims at highlighting the potential of (non)natural cinnamic derivatives to treat TB. It provides an overview of the worldwide recent patent and literature surrounding this type of easy-to-prepare small molecules. There is a special focus on their salient structural and chemical features involved in the reported anti-TB activities.
Expert opinion: Cinnamic derivatives clearly appear as attractive drug candidates to combat TB. So far, literature has reported that they are easy to synthesize and have promising anti-TB activities. Nevertheless, the mode(s) of action of these small molecules remain(s) to date obscure, which is why the implicated molecular mechanisms deserve to be investigated in further detail in the near future.