Pyrazinoic acid amide, now commonly known under the name Pyrazinamide or PZA and in previous years as Aldinamide, is a nicotinic acid derivative chemically related to isonicotinic acid hydrazide, more commonly designated Isoniazid or INH. A review of the early laboratory studies of PZA is omitted because of space limitations. In brief these studies indicated PZA alone to be a drug of slight to ...

Pyrazinamide (PZA) combined with either ethambutol (EMB) or a fluoroquinolone for 6-12 months is one of the treatments recommended for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in contacts exposed to multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). The aim of the present study was to describe the side effects related to combined PZA and EMB treatment given for LTBI, in contacts previously exposed to MDR-T...

Background: Pyrazinamide (PZA) is one of the most important drugs for tuberculosis (TB) treatment, however, its susceptibility is not routinely tested. High-resolution melting (HRM) curve analysis has been widely used for many applications. In this study, HRM assay was developed and evaluated for the detection of PZA resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates. Methods: Ninety fi...

Pyrazinamide (PZA), an analog of nicotinamide, is a prodrug that requires conversion to the bactericidal compound pyrazinoic acid (POA) by the bacterial pyrazinamidase (PZase) activity of nicotinamidase to show activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Mutations leading to a loss of PZase activity cause PZA resistance in M. tuberculosis. M. kansasii is naturally resistant to PZA and has redu...

To investigate the antagonism between isoniazid (INH) and rifampin (rifampicin) (RIF)-pyrazinamide (PZA) combination observed in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected mice, extensive pharmacokinetic studies of INH were performed and followed by experiments to assess the impact of increasing doses of INH on the antimicrobial activity of RIF-PZA combination. INH at 6.25 mg/kg of body weight produce...

Treatment of tuberculosis has many side effects. Thrombocytopenia is a serious side effect of such treatment and occurs mostly due to rifampicin (RIF). There are very few reported cases of thrombocytopenia due to isoniazid (INH). An 18-year-old female patient was diagnosed with smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis. A four-drug regimen [INH, RIF, ethambutol (EMB), and pyrazinamide (PZA)] was gi...

Ethylene is an important phytohormone that promotes the ripening of fruits and senescence of flowers thereby reducing their shelf lives. Specific ethylene biosynthesis inhibitors would help to decrease postharvest loss. Here, we identify pyrazinamide (PZA), a clinical drug used to treat tuberculosis, as an inhibitor of ethylene biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana, using a chemical genetics app...

The MICs of pyrazinamide (PZA) were determined for Mycobacterium tuberculosis cultivated under different pH conditions in 7H12 liquid medium. Mycobacterial growth was monitored by the radiometric method (BACTEC system; Johnston Laboratories, Inc., Towson, Md.). We observed a predictable eightfold difference between the MICs determined at pH 5.5 and those determined at pH 5.95. The highest MICs ...

Pyrazinamide (PZA) is one of the first line antibiotics used for the treatment of tuberculosis (TB). In the present study, we have used in vitro and in vivo systems to investigate whether PZA, in addition to its known anti-mycobacterial properties, modulate the host immune response during Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection. In vitro we have examined the effect of PZA on cytokine and che...

We examined the correlation of mutations in the pyrazinamidase (PZase) gene (pncA) with the pyrazinamide (PZA) resistance phenotype with 60 Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates. PZase activity was determined by the method of Wayne (L. G. Wayne, Am. Rev. Respir. Dis. 109:147-151, 1974), and the entire pncA nucleotide sequence, including the 74 bp upstream of the start codon, was determined. PZA s...