Repurposing Zidovudine: From HIV to Multidrug-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae?

In murine and in vitro studies, zidovudine enhanced the activities of omadacycline and nitrofurantoin against infections caused by MDR Klebsiella pneumoniae.

The HIV reverse transcriptase inhibitor zidovudine (AZT) was approved for the treatment of HIV almost 4 decades ago. Since then, AZT has been shown to have antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae through incorporation into bacterial DNA, thereby serving as a chain terminator. Now, Tian et al. have explored AZT's potentiation of antimicrobial activity against multidrug-resistant (MDR) K. pneumoniae. After first showing that AZT had synergistic antimicrobial activity when combined with multiple antibiotics against 12 strains of MDR K. pneumoniae, they selected one bacterial strain and two drugs (nitrofurantoin [NIT] and omadacycline [OMC]) for further analysis.

AZT showed synergy with NIT and OMC in vitro; for…

Reviewing Author

George Sakoulas, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardParatek Pharmaceuticals; Nestle Corp.; AbbVie; Shionogi

Speaker’s BureauAllergan/AbbVie; Paratek Pharmaceuticals; Nestle Corp.

RoyaltiesUpToDate

Editorial BoardsAntimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy; Open Forum Infectious Diseases