title: Thioridazine: resurrection as an antimicrobial agent?
abstract: The emergence of multiresistant bacterial strains and the continuing burden of infectious disease globally point to the urgent need for novel affordable antimicrobial drugs. Thioridazine is a phenothiazine antipsychotic drug with well-recognized antimicrobial activity, but this property has not been harnessed for clinical use as a result of its central nervous system and cardiac side-effects. The cardiotoxicity of thioridazine has recently been shown to be structurally specific at a molecular level, whereas its antimicrobial properties are shared by a number of phenothiazine analogues. This raises the possibility that its enantiomers or its inactive metabolite, the ring sulphoxide, may act as a lead compound in the future development of antimicrobial drugs to face the new challenges in infectious disease.
authors.affiliation: Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. ruben.thanacoody@luht.scot.nhs.uk
authors.forename: H K R
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Thanacoody
mesh_terms: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017277:Drug Approval; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D006801:Humans; D013881:Thioridazine / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D013881:Thioridazine