Interstitial lung disease (ILD) and lung fibrosis are characterized by different grades of fibrosis and inflammation. Persistent low-grade inflammation is believed to play a major pathogenic role, leading to an imbalance of cytokines, growth factors, and tissue proteinases. Recruited monocytes and macrophages play a pivotal role through their cytokine expression and possibly differentiation int...

Introduction Macrolides have been considered as potential antineoplastic and immunomodulatory agents. As antineoplastic agents, macrolides show anti-lymphoproliferative effects.[1] Various lymphoid malignancies, such as mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma,[2] follicular B-cell lymphoma,[3] diffuse large B-cell lymphoma,[4] Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia (WM),[5] multiple myeloma ...

The prognosis of patients with chronic respiratory tract infections, especially diffuse panbronchiolitis, is remarkably improved by long-term administration of low-dose macrolides. However, in some cases, patients are refractory to macrolide treatment and show a low or no response; therefore, new treatment strategies are required. Here we present a patient refractory to either single low-dose c...

Macrolide antibiotics are widely used for a range of indications, including pneumonia. Both high-level and low-level resistance to macrolides is increasing in pneumococci globally. Macrolide resistance in pneumococci is of limited clinical relevance where ß-lactams remain the mainstay of treatment, such as for moderate/severe pneumonia; however, data suggest that macrolides may not be able to b...

CONTEXT Acute pancreatitis has been reported in a few cases treated with macrolides or glucocorticoids. CASE REPORT We report the case of a 58 year old patient who, after 2 days of treatment with roxithromycin and betamethasone, manifested acute pancreatitis. Other causes of the disease were ruled out. No re-occurrence of pancreatitis was observed in a 16 month follow-up. CONCLUSION Our cas...

The problem of emergence and dissemination of multidrug resistance, especially among Gram-negative bacteria, has reached alarming levels. This increases the need to develop surveillance methods that more effectively and accurately provide information about the emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant organisms. In this study, using a well-defined population of non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) ...

The macrolides, lincosamides, ketolides, and streptogramin B agents (the MLKS(B) antimicrobial agents) have related chemical structures and share similar molecular targets on the 50S ribosomal subunit of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Mutations in rRNA or ribosomal proteins generate a variety of resistance phenotypes. The M phenotype of S. pneumoniae, which predominates in North America, affords low...

BACKGROUND The choice of antibiotics to treat community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is primarily empiric, and the effect of this choice on length of stay (LOS) and mortality is largely unknown. OBJECTIVE To examine the impact of antibiotic choice on these outcomes in general medical patients hospitalized with CAP. METHODS One hundred patients hospitalized with CAP were prospectively identified...

Objective. The present study aims at reviewing the main publications on the use of macrolides as immunomodulators in patients with noncystic fibrosis bronchiectasis. Source of Data. The Medline database was our source of data for this research carried out until June 2011, using the key words: macrolides and bronchiectasis, while searching for original articles and reviews. Summary of Data. Seve...

Existing macrolides have never shown definitive clinical efficacy in tuberculosis. Recent reports suggest that ribosome methylation is involved in macrolide resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a mechanism that newer macrolides have been designed to overcome in gram-positive bacteria. Therefore, selected macrolides and ketolides (descladinose) with substitutions at positions 9, 11,12, and ...