Thymidine biosynthesis is essential in all cells. Inhibitors of the enzymes involved in this pathway (e.g. methotrexate) are thus frequently used as cytostatics. Due to its pivotal role in mycobacterial thymidylate synthesis dUTPase, which hydrolyzes dUTP into the dTTP precursor dUMP, has been suggested as a target for new antitubercular agents. All mycobacterial genomes encode dUTPase with a m...

BACKGROUND Mycolic acids are a complex mixture of branched, long-chain fatty acids, representing key components of the highly hydrophobic mycobacterial cell wall. Pathogenic mycobacteria carry mycolic acid sub-types that contain cyclopropane rings. Double bonds at specific sites on mycolic acid precursors are modified by the action of cyclopropane mycolic acid synthases (CMASs). The latter belo...

OBJECTIVES Lead antituberculosis (anti-TB) molecules with novel mechanisms of action are urgently required to fuel the anti-TB drug discovery pipeline. The aim of this study was to validate the use of the high-throughput spot culture growth inhibition (HT-SPOTi) assay for screening libraries of compounds against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and to study the inhibitory effect of ibuprofen (IBP) an...

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is rare; however, it is one of the important causes of acute liver failure which results in significant morbidity or mortality. MATERIAL AND METHODS Patients with suspected DILI were enrolled based on predefined criteria and followed up for at least 6 months or until normalization of liver tests. Causality assessment was done by applying ...

Objectives: The present study was undertaken for investigating the protective effect of ethanolic extract of Mirabilis Jalapa Linn leaves on antitubercular drugs induced hepatotoxicity. Methods: Anti-tubercular drugs were used to induce hepatotoxicity in rats. Silymarin was used as standard drug (100 mg/kg p.o.). Ethanolic extract of leaves of Mirabilis Jalapa Linn (250 & 500 mg/kg p.o.) was ad...

Rifamycins are key sterilizing drugs in the current treatment of active tuberculosis (TB). Daily dosing of rifapentine (P), a potent rifamycin with high intracellular accumulation, in place of rifampin (R) in the standard antitubercular regimen significantly shortens the duration of treatment needed to prevent relapse in a murine model of active TB. We undertook the current study to compare dir...

The problem of patient non-compliance in the management of tuberculosis (TB) can be overcome by reducing the dosing frequency of antitubercular drugs (ATD) employing drug carriers. This study reports on the intravenous (iv) administration of lung specific stealth liposomes encapsulating ATD (rifampicin and isoniazid in combination) to guinea pigs and the detailed pharmacokinetic/chemotherapeuti...

A simple, selective, precise, and stability-indicating high-performance thin-layer chromatographic (HPTLC) method has been established and validated for analysis of isoniazid and rifampicin both as the bulk drugs and in formulations. The compounds were separated on aluminumbacked silica gel 60 F254 plates with n-hexane–2-propanol–acetone–ammonia–formic acid, 3:3.8:2.8:0.3:0.1 (v/v) as mobile ph...

Despite being one of the first antitubercular agents identified, isoniazid (INH) is still the most prescribed drug for prophylaxis and tuberculosis (TB) treatment and, together with rifampicin, the pillars of current chemotherapy. A high percentage of isoniazid resistance is linked to mutations in the pro-drug activating enzyme KatG, so the discovery of direct inhibitors (DI) of the enoyl-ACP r...