Furazolidone

Furazolidone is a nitrofuran antibacterial agent and monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI). It is marketed by Roberts Laboratories under the brand name Furoxone and by GlaxoSmithKline as Dependal-M. Furazolidone has been used in human and veterinary medicine. It has a broad spectrum of activity being active against Gram positivei Clostridium perfringens Corynebacterium pyogenes Streptococci Staphylococci Gram negative Escherichia coli Salmonella dublin Salmonella typhimurium Shigella Protozoa Giardia lamblia Eimeria species Histomonas meleagridis In humans it has been used to treat diarrhoea and enteritis caused by bacteria or protozoan infections, including traveler's diarrhoea, cholera and bacteremic salmonellosis. From the early 1970's it has been used in China to treat peptic ulcers, where the mechanism is treatment of the causative Helicobacter pylori infection. In 2002, a journal article suggested it's use in treatment of helicobacter pylori infections in children. Furazolidone has also been used for giardiasis (due to Giardia lamblia), amoebiasis and shigellosis also though it is not a first line treatment. As a veterinary medicine, furazolidone has been used with some success to treat salmonids for Myxobolus cerebralis infections. It has also been used in aquaculture. Since furazolidone is a nitrofuran antibiotic, its use in food animals is currently prohibited by the FDA under the Animal Medicinal Drug Use Clarification Act, 1994. Furazolidone is no longer available in the US. It is used to differentiate micrococci and staphylococci. It is believed to work by crosslinking of DNA. Though an effective antibiotic when all others fail, against extremely drug resistant infections, it has many side effects. including inhibition of monoamine oxidase, and as with other nitrofurans generally, minimum inhibitory concentrations also produce systemic toxicity: tremors, convulsions, peripheral neuritis, gastrointestinal disturbances, depression of spermatogenesis. Nitrofurans are recognized by FDA as mutagens/carcinogens, and can no longer be used since 1991.