Nurses administering aerosolized pentamidine (AP) were studied to determine any effect AP may be having on their health. Exposure was determined by each nurse's self-report of treatment given as recorded in a daily log and personal and area pentamidine sampling. Outcome measures were self-reported symptoms recorded in a daily log and peak expiratory flow rates (PEFR) and cross-shift and cross-w...

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Drug resistance in pathogenic protozoa is very often caused by changes to the 'transportome' of the parasites. In Trypanosoma brucei, several transporters have been implicated in uptake of the main classes of drugs, diamidines and melaminophenyl arsenicals. The resistance mechanism had been thought to be due to loss of a transporter known to carry both types of agents: the aminopurine transport...

The molecular docking tools Autodock and Surflex accurately reproduce the crystallographic structures of a collection of small molecule ligands that have been shown to bind nucleic acids. Docking studies were performed with the intercalators daunorubicin and ellipticine and the minor groove binders distamycin and pentamidine. Autodock and Surflex dock daunorubicin and distamycin to their nuclei...

BACKGROUND Respiratory therapists (RTs) and other health-care workers are potentially exposed to a variety of aerosolized medications. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Health and Safety Practices Survey of Healthcare Workers describes current exposure control practices and barriers to using personal protective equipment during administration of selected aerosoli...

Pentamidine isethionate is currently used for the prophylaxis and treatment of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Its use has been associated with a number of symptoms in staff administering treatment, and there are some additional concerns about possible adverse health effects of long term exposure. The aim of this study was to quantify exposure of health care staff administering nebulized pentam...

Combination therapy has proven successful in treating a wide variety of aggressive human cancers. Historically, combination treatments have been discovered through serendipity or lengthy trials using known anticancer agents with similar indications. We have used combination high-throughput screening to discover the unexpected synergistic combination of an antiparasitic agent, pentamidine, and a...

Pentamidine was compared with meglumine antimoniate (Glucantime) for 80 patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis due to Leishmania braziliensis in Peru. Of the 40 patients administered Glucantime (20 mg of antimony [Sb]/kg/day intravenously for 20 days), 31 cured (78%), 6 failed (15%), of which 5 were due to relapse, and 3 were lost to follow-up (7%). Of the 40 patients administered pentamidine (2...

Synthetic inhibitors of benzamidine type have been found to have inhibiting effects on arginine specific cysteine proteinases of P. gingivalis. The purpose of our study was to assess the effects of these inhibitors on the virulence properties of two P. gingivalis strains, the reference strain ATCC 33277 and JH16-1, a clinical isolate obtained from a patient with severe periodontitis. The inhibi...