Compound kills lethal pneumonia bug.Compound kills lethal pneumonia bug Animal studies show a new drug kills Pneumocystis carinii, the protozoa-like parasite that causes a sometimes-fatal pneumonia that strikes about 70 percent of AIDS patients. The research suggests this compound may safely preven and treat P. carinii pneumonia. The Food and Drug Administration has approved trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and pentamidine pentamidine /pen·tam·i·dine/ (pen-tam´i-den) an antiinfective used as the isethionate salt in the treatment of pneumonia, leishmaniasis, and early African trypanosomiasis. for treatment of P. carinii pneumonia, but some people with AIDS The People With AIDS (PWA) Self-Empowerment Movement was a movement of those diagnosed with AIDS and grew out of San Francisco. The PWA Self-Empowerment Movement believes that those diagnosed as having AIDS should "take charge of their own life, illness, and care, and to minimize must stop taking these drugs due to serious side-effects. Neither drug kills the parasite outright, and thus many people with P. carinii pneumonia get successful treatment only to suffer another bout months later. Now Walter T. Hughes at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, founded in 1962, is a leading pediatric treatment and research facility focused on children's catastrophic diseases. It is located in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1996, Peter Doherty, Ph.D., of St. in Memphis, Tenn., reports that 100 milligrams per kilogram of hydroxynaphthoquinone daily for six weeks blocked P. carinii pneumonia in 90 percent of rats vulnerable to the disease because scientists gave them immunosuppressive drugs during the same six-week period. Immunosuppressive therapy allows latent P. carinii present in most healthy rats to flourish and cause pneumonia. Indeed, control rats receiving immunosuppressive drugs but no other treatment for six weeks all developed this deadly pneumonia. The team reports its study of roughly 250 rats in the February ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS AND CHEMOTHERAPY Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (print-ISSN 0066-4804, CODEN AMACCQ; canceled ISSN 0074-9923, canceled CODEN AACHAX) is an academic journal published by the American Society for Microbiology. . The researchers found the drug cured rats with already established P. carinii pneumonia and reported results that suggest hydroxynaphthoquinone killed the protozoa-like microbe microbe /mi·crobe/ (mi´krob) a microorganism, especially a pathogenic one such as a bacterium, protozoan, or fungus.micro´bialmicro´bic mi·crobe n. in all the immunosuppressed Immunosuppressed A state in which the immune system is suppressed by medications during the treatment of other disorders, like cancer, or following an organ transplantation. Mentioned in: Fifth Disease rats. The team is finishing a small Food and Drug Administration Phase I human study of the drug's safety. Although the results of that study are preliminary, Hughes says they hint that the new compound safely prevents P. carinii pneumonia in HIV-infected people. The team now plans to study the drug's ability to combat P. carinii pneumonia in AIDS patients. |
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