Abstract

LIMA, William Gustavo; RAMOS-ALVES, Maria Cristina  and  SOARES, Adriana Cristina. From psychiatric disorders to antibiotic therapy: repositioning of chlorpromazine as an antibacterial agent. Rev. colomb. cienc. quim. farm. [online]. 2019, vol.48, n.1, pp.5-28. ISSN 0034-7418.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcciquifa.v48n1.80062.

The substantial increase in the antibiotic resistance brings on an alarm to the future of the antibiotic therapy. However, the pharmaceutical industry has been neglecting its investments in new drug research and development, mainly because of the pharmacologic, financial and legal factors. Therefore, the drug repositioning of clinic available agents become a promising tool to bypass the lack of interest of the pharmaceutical industry. A drug used to treat psychoses, the Chlorpromazine (CPZ), stands out as a large spectrum antibiotic, which covers Gram-positive and Gram -negative bacteria, and also mycobacteria. Its antibacterial activity is not related to microorganism susceptibility profile, and it could be maintained even on strains highly resistant to the conventional antibiotics. Studies point out that even on serum concentrations clinically available, the CPZ can eliminate Staphylococcus aureus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis inside of macrophages. In addition, clinical trials have revealed its benefits on support therapy for patients suffering from active infections. As a result, the CPZ could be used as an optional antibiotic therapy, especially in case of infections due to intracellular microorganisms with multidrug resistance phenotype.

Keywords : Drug repositioning; phenothiazine; efflux pumps; bacterial resistance; Staphylococccus aureus; Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

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