An effective regimen for treatment of tuberculosis (TB) is comprised of multiple drugs that inhibit a range of essential cellular activities in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The effectiveness of a regimen is further enhanced if constituent drugs act with synergy. Here, we report that faropenem (a penem) or biapenem, doripenem, or meropenem (carbapenems), which belong to the β-lactam class of anti...

The in vitro and in vivo antibacterial activities of the new rifamycin derivatives KRM-1648 and KRM-1657 were compared with those of rifampin. Rifabutin, ciprofloxacin, and clarithromycin were also tested for reference. The respective MICs of KRM-1648 and KRM-1657 for 90% of the strains tested (MIC90S) were 0.016 and 0.0078 microgram/ml, respectively, for methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus ...

32 Background 33 There are currently no defined optimal therapies available for multidrug-resistant 34 (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii infections. We evaluated the efficacy of rifampin, 35 imipenem, sulbactam, colistin, and their combinations against MDR A. baumannii in 36 experimental pneumonia and meningitis models. 37 Methods 38 The bactericidal in vitro activity of rifampin, imipenem, sulbact...

Endocarditis was produced in rabbits with a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis isolate. Subpopulations resistant to other semisynthetic penicillins and cephalosporins were detected in the isolate. Their presence was probably responsible for the increase in minimum bactericidal concentrations and minimum inhibitory concentrations when tests with high inocula, rather than low inocul...

We used expression microarrays to test the effects of rifampin on the overall pattern of mRNA expression of multiple metabolic enzymes in primary human hepatocytes. Two microarrays were utilized, a cDNA-based array and one that is oligonucleotide-based. The cDNA-based expression arrays showed that rifampin caused a 7.7 +/- 6.6-fold induction in CYP2A6 and a 4.0 +/- 2.0-fold increase in the CYP2...

Recent case reports of vancomycin treatment failures in the United States, Japan, and France have prompted a retrospective analysis of 42 cases of septicemia caused by epidemic methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain 15 (EMRSA-15), which is the most prevalent epidemic strain of methicillin-resistant S. aureus in the United Kingdom; all cases occurred in a teaching hospital in Manches...

Resistance to rifampin in Mycobacterium tuberculosis results from mutations in the gene coding for the beta subunit of RNA polymerase (rpoB). At least 95% of rifampin-resistant isolates have mutations in rpoB, and the mutations are clustered in a small region. About 40 distinct point mutations and in-frame insertions and deletions in rpoB have been identified, but point mutations in two codons,...

Background. One-third of the world’s population is infected with tuberculosis, and 9 months of isoniazid monotherapy is the treatment of choice for latent tuberculosis infection. However, this approach has been associated with hepatotoxicity and poor compliance. A shorter (4-month) rifampin regimen has been evaluated in recent clinical trials. Methods. We performed a meta-analysis of the publis...

Rifampin is recommended as a prophylactic treatment for intimate contacts of young children who develop invasive infections with Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib). A 4-day course of rifampin (20 mg/kg of body weight per day, not to exceed 600 mg as a maximum single daily dose) is 95% effective in eradicating pharyngeal colonization with Hib, thus effectively reducing the risk of both associat...

BACKGROUND Rifapentine administered 5 days per week has potent activity in mouse models of antituberculosis chemotherapy, but efficacy and safety data are limited in humans. We compared the antimicrobial activity and safety of rifapentine vs rifampin during the first 8 weeks of pulmonary tuberculosis treatment. METHODS In total, 531 adults with sputum smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis wer...