Thioridazine cures extensively drug-resistant (XDR-TB) and the need for global trials is now!

Leonard Amaral (1) , Martin Boeree , Stephen H. Gillespie (2) , Zarir F. Udwadia (3) , Dick van Soolingen (4)

1 ULISBOA - Universidade de Lisboa = University of Lisbon
2 Centre for Medical Microbiology
3 Hinduja Hospital and Research Center
4 National Institute for Public Health and the Environment

Thioridazine (TDZ) has been shown to have in vitro activity against multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains of , to promote the killing of intracellular MDR and XDR strains and to cure the mouse of antibiotic-susceptible and -resistant pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) infections. Recently, TDZ was used to cure 10 of 12 XDR-TB patients in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At the time of writing, it is being used for the therapy of non-antibiotic-responsive terminal XDR-TB patients in Mumbai, India, on the basis of compassionate therapy and although it is too early to determine a cure, the patients have improved appetite, weight gain, are afebrile and free of night sweats, and their radiological picture shows great improvement. Because XDR-TB is essentially a terminal disease in many areas of the world and no new effective agents have yet to yield successful clinical trials, global clinical trials for the therapy of XDR-TB are urgently required.

Mots clés: Pulmonary tuberculosis; Multidrug-resistant TB; Extensively drug-resistant TB

Leonard Amaral, Martin Boeree, Stephen H. Gillespie, Zarir F. Udwadia, Dick van Soolingen. Thioridazine cures extensively drug-resistant (XDR-TB) and the need for global trials is now!. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, 2010, 35 (6), pp.524. ⟨10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2009.12.019⟩. ⟨hal-00585817⟩