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The waning effectiveness of established tuberculosis treatments due to the rise of multi and extensively drugresistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, coupled with the synergism of HIV infection, demands basic research efforts to inform focused drug development programs. Structural genomics projects provide rich sources of information for the rational design of anti-tubercular drugs, aiming to exploit unique and novel protein features and interactions based on atomic resolution structures. This review compiles structures of M. tuberculosis proteins elucidated since January 2007 that are promising avenues for drug design, encompassing proteins involved with known and experimental antituberculosis drugs, metabolism, dealing with the hostile environment of the host organism, and information processing.

IT has been shown by Holliman and Mann1that o-2-bromoethyl-benzyl bromide (I) condenses readily with primary amines to give 2-substituted-1 : 2 : 3 : 4-tetrahydro-iso-quinolines (II). Although hitherto this has apparently been the only known method for the synthesis of 2-aryl-iso-quinolines of type (II), it has one serious disadvantage, namely, that for various reasons it does not lend itself to the preparation of iso-quinolines of this type having substituent groups in the benzene ring. The presence of such groups may be essential if the tetrahydro-iso-quinoline is to possess marked physiological action. To overcome this difficulty we have developed the following synthesis.