We describe two brothers of consanguineous Pakistani parents who lived in Norway and had disseminated infections due to nontuberculous mycobacteria. The first boy developed clinical signs of disseminated BCG infection after vaccination. He was successfully treated with antimycobacterial agents. Two and one-half years later, he developed disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex infection and die...

A series of 3-arylidene-5-(substituted phenyl)-2(3H)-furanones (3-10) and their nitrogen analogues, 3-arylidene-5-(substituted phenyl)-1-benzyl-2(3H)-pyrrolone (11-14), and 3-arylidene-5-(substituted phenyl)-2(3H)-pyrrolones (15-21) were synthesized. All the compounds were screened for their antimycobacterial activity in vitro against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv (ATCC 27294) in BACTEC medi...

Euclea natalensis A.DC., Knowltonia vesicatoria (L.f) Sims, and Pelargonium sidoides DC. are South African plants traditionally used to treat tuberculosis. Extracts from these plants were used in combination with isoniazid (INH) to investigate the possibility of synergy with respect to antimycobacterial activity. The ethanol extract of K. vesicatoria was subjected to fractionation to identify t...

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha inhibitors play an important role in the treatment of immun-mediated diseases such as Crohn's disease. But they also have been related to increased risk for disseminated Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections and paradoxical response to antimycobacterial treatment. Here we report a disseminated tuberculosis case and a paradoxical response to treatment after rece...

We analyzed the antimycobacterial activity of the hexane extract of rhizomes from Aristolochia elegans. Some compounds of this extract were purified and tested against a group of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains. We also evaluated their antiprotozoal activities. The hexane extract was active against M. tuberculosis H37Rv at a MIC = 100 μg mL(-1); the pure compounds eupomatenoid...

Conventional antimycobacterial screening involves CFU analysis, which poses a great challenge due to slow growth of mycobacteria. Recombinant strains carrying reporter genes under the influence of constitutive promoters allow rapid and wide screening of compounds but without revealing their modes of action. Reporter strains using pathway-specific promoters provide a better alternative but allow...

Antimicrobial peptides/proteins are ancient and naturallyoccurring antibiotics in innate immune responses in a variety of organisms. Additionally, these peptides have been recognized as important signaling molecules in regulation of both innate and adaptive immunity. During mycobacterial infection, antimicrobial peptides including cathelicidin, defensin, and hepcidin have antimicrobial activiti...

Chalcones, i.e., compounds with the chemical pattern of 1,3-diphenylprop-2-en-1-ones, exert a wide range of bio-activities, e.g., antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, anti-infective etc. Our research group has been focused on pyrazine analogues of chalcones; several series have been synthesized and tested in vitro on antifungal and antimycobacterial activity. The highest potency was exhi...

OBJECTIVES The major advantages of Drosophila melanogaster are a well-characterized immune system and high degree of susceptibility to tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium marinum. The D. melanogaster-M. marinum infection model is gaining momentum as a screening tool because it is genetically amenable, low priced, rapid, technically convenient and ethically acceptable. In this context, the aim ...

Two antimycobacterial drugs ethambutol (EMB) and isoniazid (INH) were found to result in decreases of biomechanical properties including adhesion force, cell wall spring constant, and Young's modulus in Mycobacterium sp. strain JLS (M. JLS).