title: Role of Phenothiazines and Structurally Similar Compounds of Plant Origin in the Fight against Infections by Drug Resistant Bacteria.
abstract: Phenothiazines have their primary effects on the plasma membranes of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Among the components of the prokaryotic plasma membrane affected are efflux pumps, their energy sources and energy providing enzymes, such as ATPase, and genes that regulate and code for the permeability aspect of a bacterium. The response of multidrug and extensively drug resistant tuberculosis to phenothiazines shows an alternative therapy for the treatment of these dreaded diseases, which are claiming more and more lives every year throughout the world. Many phenothiazines have shown synergistic activity with several antibiotics thereby lowering the doses of antibiotics administered to patients suffering from specific bacterial infections. Trimeprazine is synergistic with trimethoprim. Flupenthixol (Fp) has been found to be synergistic with penicillin and chlorpromazine (CPZ); in addition, some antibiotics are also synergistic. Along with the antibacterial action described in this review, many phenothiazines possess plasmid curing activities, which render the bacterial carrier of the plasmid sensitive to antibiotics. Thus, simultaneous applications of a phenothiazine like TZ would not only act as an additional antibacterial agent but also would help to eliminate drug resistant plasmid from the infectious bacterial cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Herbicure Healthcare Bio-Herbal Foundation, 7&8 Metro Garden City, D. H. Road, Pailan Kolkata 700104, India.
authors.forename: Sujata G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Dastidar
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics and Chemistry, University of Southern Denmark, Memphys, DK 5230, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jette E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Kristiansen
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Szeged, Dom ter 10, H-6720, Szeged, Hungary.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Molnar
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Szeged, Dom ter 10, H-6720, Szeged, Hungary. lamaral@ihmt.unl.pt.|Travel Medicine of the CMDT, Institute of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 100 Rua Junqueira, 1349-008 Lisbon, Portugal. lamaral@ihmt.unl.pt.
authors.forename: Leonard
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Amaral
keywords: antimicrobial activities; efflux pumps; phenothiazines; quorum sensing; reversal of antibiotic resistance