Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Tigecycline- as antimalarial drug ?


                As for my knowledge goes,  'Tigecycline'  is being used  as  drug for the antibiotic resistant strain 'Staphylococcus aureus'.  And this drug belongs to the class of "glycylcyclines" (similar to tetracyclines : central four-ring carbocyclic skeleton).  The broad spectrum activity is attributed to the  D-9 position substitution. It is a bacteriostatic and acts by the inhibition of protein synthesis. It has been found to be active against both Gram positive and Gram negative bacterii. 

Now thanx to the researchers from the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, who have achieved something interesting feat, i.e.,  Tigecycline has significant antimalarial activity on its own and may also be effective against multi drug-resistant malaria when administered in combination with traditional antimalarial drugs

Increasing resistance of Plasmodium falciparum to existing drugs has resulted in the search for new antimalarial therapies and I congratulate the team for this important achievement.  More interestingly the drug is 6 times more active against P. falciparum than doxycycline. As the drug itself is an established one,  its one more addition to the serendepity list. Congrats the team...

Ref : http://www.asm.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=91042


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