What is it about?
Zidovudine (azidothymidine, AZT) was the first drug approved to treat HIV. Less known is that it also has antibacterial activity: laboratory studies show that it can inhibit Gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, including multidrug-resistant strains, and that it can act together with other antibiotics. In this short article we summarise this evidence and discuss why the antibacterial potential of zidovudine has so far remained unexpressed in clinical practice.
Featured Image
Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Infections caused by multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria leave clinicians with very few options, and new antibiotics are slow to arrive. Repurposing well-known drugs with established safety data, such as zidovudine, could be a faster way to expand the therapeutic arsenal and deserves dedicated clinical research.
Perspectives
Drug repurposing fascinates me: sometimes the answer to a new problem is already in our pharmacy. Working with a microbiologist and a clinical colleague in Trieste, we wanted to draw attention to a molecule that infectious disease physicians know very well, but for a completely different reason.
Professor Stefano Di Bella
Universita degli Studi di Trieste
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Zidovudine/azidothymidine (AZT) unexpressed clinical potential against multidrug-resistant Gram negatives, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, December 2021, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2021.106500.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
