It turned out that a decades-old drug for urinary tract infections helps with
Brain-eating amoeba is spreading in the US: is there a danger to Russia
The prospects of the drug were described in the reportabout a clinical case published in January in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. A 54-year-old man whose brain was invaded by the amoeba Balamuthia mandrillaris was admitted to a Northern California hospital with an unexplained seizure. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan revealed problems in the left side of his brain. After being transferred to the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center, doctors took samples of the affected tissue and cerebrospinal fluid from the patient. Tests showed that the man was infected with B. mandrillaris.
This single-celled organism lives in dust,soil and water and enters the body through skin wounds and cuts, as well as through the lungs when inhaled. At first the disease seems mild, but complications occur within a few weeks or months. The amoeba then enters the bloodstream and travels to the brain, causing a very rare infection called granulomatous amoebic encephalitis, which kills about 90% of those infected.
After consultation with the Control Centersdiseases, the patient was prescribed an aggressive regimen of antiparasitic, antibacterial and antifungal drugs. The treatment caused serious side effects, including kidney failure, and the amoebas did not disappear.
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Looking for another solution, Dr. NatashaSpottiswoode, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, San Francisco and first author of the case study, found a 2018 report published in the journal mBio. Then scientists proved that the antibiotic nitroxoline can kill B. mandrillaris in laboratory conditions. The drug is approved in Europe, but not in the United States, so the medical team sought permission from the Food and Drug Administration for its use. Then they started nitroxoline therapy and it helped. The patient felt better within a week.
Soon the patient was discharged from the hospital,and he continued to take nitroxoline at home along with other medications. Soon his doctors will stop the drugs. Meanwhile, doctors at the University of California, San Francisco are monitoring a second patient infected with B. mandrillaris who has begun receiving nitroxoline. The treatment showed similar improvements, Science reports.
Nitroxoline is a drug that hasantimicrobial action, from the group of hydroxyquinolines. It has been used in the treatment and prevention of urinary tract infections in European countries for more than 50 years. Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are nonspecific infectious processes that affect all parts of the urinary system. Based on localization, they are usually divided into infections of the lower sections (urethritis, cystitis) and infections of the upper sections (pyelonephritis).
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Cover photo: Proyecto Agua