A long list of chemotherapeutical drugs used in the treatment of the peripheral and the central nervous systems possess anti-microbial activity. Some of these neurotropic compounds are chiral, with the one stereo isomeric form exaggerating reduced neurotropism. This is the case for the levorotatory form of thioridazine. The phenothiazine thioridazine is an interesting compound, characterized by...

The aim of the present work was to study the effect of chronic treatment with pharmacological doses of selected antidepressants (imipramine, mirtazapine) and neuroleptics (thioridazine, risperidone) on the activity and level of CYP2D in the rat brain. Our previous studies carried out on the liver showed that after chronic treatment with psychotropics, the activity of CYP2D was significantly dec...

The aim of this study was to use Descemet's Stripping-automated Endothelial Keratoplasty (DSAEK) as a novel treatment to remove thioridazine corneal deposits. A 53-year-old female presented with a 3-month history of visual loss and glare. She had been taking thioridazine (100 mg/day for 1 year) for a psychiatric disorder. Dense yellowish-brown deposits had developed in the posterior stroma. Thi...

BACKGROUND Thioridazine, a neuroleptic phenothiazine with antimicrobial efficacy is known to trigger anemia. At least in theory, the anemia could result from stimulation of suicidal erythrocyte death or eryptosis, which is characterized by cell shrinkage and by phospholipid scrambling of the cell membrane with phosphatidylserine exposure at the erythrocyte surface. Triggers of eryptosis include...

Thioridazine hydrochloride, a member of the phenothiazine group, is one of the most widely used drugs in the treatment of psychiatric patients. It has a tranquilizing effect, but no therapeutically significant anti-emetic or hypothermic effect, which other phenothiazine drugs have, and does not potentiate the action of anestetics. Thioridazine is used mainly in the treatment of schizophrenia an...

Multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis have emerged as grave threats to public health worldwide. Very few active drugs are available or likely to become available soon. To address these problems we revisited a classical observation, the applicability of phenothiazines as antimicrobial drugs. Within this pharmacological class we selected thioridazine, which is most efficacious an...

The articles by De Knegt et al. and Singh et al. in a recent issue of this Journal address one of the current debates regarding the potential role of thioridazine in the treatment of tuberculosis. This commentary presents a summary of the available evidence, and, emphasizing the need for further research, asks the question: "How far can we go in repurposing thioridazine?"