Antibacterial antisense compounds and methods of their use in treating a Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in a mammalian host are disclosed. The compounds include an antisense oligonucleotide conjugated to a carrier peptide that significantly enhances the antibacterial activity of the oligonucleotide. The antisense oligonucleotides contain 10-20 nucleotide bases and have a targeting nucleic acid sequence complementary to a target sequence containing or within 20 bases, in a downstream direction, of the translational start codon of a bacterial mRNA that encodes a bacterial protein essential for bacterial replication, where the compound binds to a target mRNA with a Tm of between 45° to 60° C. The carrier peptide is an arginine-rich peptide containing between 6 and 14 amino acids. Antisense compounds that target host factor genes that facilitate Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection are also provided, as are methods of using these compounds to treat Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections, alone or in combination with other therapies.
