Clofazimine, a member of the riminophenazine class of drugs, is the cornerstone agent for the treatment of leprosy. This agent is currently being studied in clinical trials for the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis to address the urgent need for new drugs that can overcome existing and emerging drug resistance. However, the use of clofazimine in tuberculosis treatment is hampered by...

A study was undertaken with the aim of testing the usefulness of clofazimine as a prophylactic agent against neuritis and nerve damage. A modified regimen, using initial high doses of clofazimine followed by regular multibacillary multidrug therapy (MB-MDT) WHO regimen, was given to a series of consecutive cases of high risk borderline leprosy patients, fulfilling defined selection criteria (n ...

Clofazimine, a lipophilic riminophenazine antibiotic, possesses both antimycobacterial and anti-inflammatory activities. However, its efficacy has been demonstrated only in the treatment of leprosy, not in human tuberculosis, despite the fact that this agent is impressively active in vitro against multidrug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Recent insights into novel targets and ...

OBJECTIVES This study was designed to investigate the effects of the membrane-active, anti-mycobacterial agent, clofazimine, on potassium (K+)-uptake by a mutant of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), in which the Trk system, the major K+ transporter of this microbial pathogen, had been selectively inactivated. METHODS The ceoB and ceoC genes of MTB, which encode the TrkA proteins, CeoB and Ceo...

Clofazimine, a riminophenazine antimicrobial agent, and its analogue B669 were investigated for their effects on FaDu cells, a human squamous carcinoma cell line. These agents, at concentrations within the therapeutic range (0.25-2 micrograms/ml), caused a dose-dependent tumor cell cytotoxicosis which was greatly enhanced in the presence of human neutrophils. The neutrophil-mediated increment i...

The global tuberculosis crisis urgently demands new, efficacious, orally available drugs with the potential to shorten and simplify the long and complex treatments for drug-sensitive and drug-resistant disease. Clofazimine, a riminophenazine used for many years to treat leprosy, demonstrates efficacy in animal models of tuberculosis via a novel mode of action. However, clofazimine's physicochem...

To THE EDITOR: A 58-year-old male patient who was diagnosed as having borderline borderline leprosy with a bacterial index of 2.0 was started on multidrug therapy (MDT) with dapsone, rifampin and clofazimine on the schedule recommended by the World Health Organization. Baseline investigations ruled out the possibility of any systemic illness before MDT was started. He gave no clinical history o...

A comparative pharmacokinetic study of Lositril (rifampicin) was carried out in six multibacillary and twelve paucibacillary leprosy cases. The type of leprosy had no significant effect on rifampicin pharmacokinetics. The effect of dapsone and clofazimine when given separately and in combination was studied on rifampicin pharmacokinetics in each group of six patients. Within group comparison re...

INTRODUCTION Treatment for erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL), an immunological complication of leprosy, is diverse. We undertook a systematic review as it was not clear which treatments were most beneficial. METHODS We did a systematic search to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing treatment with placebo, no treatment or another therapy. Two authors assessed quality and checke...