Pentamidine (salt of isethionate) is an antimicrobial medication primarily given for prevention and treatment of Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) caused by Pneumocystis jirovecii, also formerly known as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), a severe interstitial type of pneumonia often seen in patients with HIV infection. PCP is considered an 'opportunistic infection', endangering only immunodeficient patients such as those with HIV/AIDS. Pentamidine is also used as a prophylactic in patients receiving chemotherapy, as they also have a depressed immune system as a direct side-effect of the drugs used. The mortality of untreated PCP is very high. Additionally, pentamidine has good clinical activity in treating leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness caused by different strains of Trypanosoma, and yeast infections caused by the organism Candida albicans. Pentamidine is also used as a prophylactic antibiotic for children undergoing treatment for leukemia.
Apart from these diverse applications Pentamidine, has been recently found to become a new therapy for an inherited muscular wasting disease, according to researchers at the University of Oregon and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New
York.
Pentamidine, when tested in genetically altered mice, counters genetic splicing defects in RNA that lead to type 1 myotonic dystrophy - one of nine types of muscular dystrophy -- also known as DM1 and Steinart's disease. Researchers found that pentamidine disrupted the complexes formed by the expanded repeats and the MBNL protein that becomes stuck to them, allowing the protein to return to its proper location in the cell. The compound also inhibited interactions of MBNL with the cytosine-uracil-guanine repeats and partially rescued two splicing errors in the mice. Though further study like testing with patients suffering from DM1 is still to be established, its a good achievement.
Source : http://uonews.uoregon.edu/archive/news-release/2009/11/possible-help-fight-against-muscle-wasting-disease
Apart from these diverse applications Pentamidine, has been recently found to become a new therapy for an inherited muscular wasting disease, according to researchers at the University of Oregon and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New
York.
Pentamidine, when tested in genetically altered mice, counters genetic splicing defects in RNA that lead to type 1 myotonic dystrophy - one of nine types of muscular dystrophy -- also known as DM1 and Steinart's disease. Researchers found that pentamidine disrupted the complexes formed by the expanded repeats and the MBNL protein that becomes stuck to them, allowing the protein to return to its proper location in the cell. The compound also inhibited interactions of MBNL with the cytosine-uracil-guanine repeats and partially rescued two splicing errors in the mice. Though further study like testing with patients suffering from DM1 is still to be established, its a good achievement.
Source : http://uonews.uoregon.edu/archive/news-release/2009/11/possible-help-fight-against-muscle-wasting-disease
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