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 GSK plc (an acronym from its former name GlaxoSmithKline plc) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutics, pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with headquarters in London. It was established in 2000 by a Mergers an ...

as Dependal-M.

Medical uses

Furazolidone has been used in human and veterinary medicine. It has a broad spectrum of activity, being active against: *

Gram-positive bacteria In bacteriology, gram-positive bacteria are bacteria that give a positive result in the Gram stain test, which is traditionally used to quickly classify bacteria into two broad categories according to their type of cell wall. The Gram stain ...

** '' Clostridium perfringens'' ** '' Corynebacterium pyogenes'' ** Streptococci ** Staphylococci *

Gram-negative bacteria Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that, unlike gram-positive bacteria, do not retain the Crystal violet, crystal violet stain used in the Gram staining method of bacterial differentiation. Their defining characteristic is that their cell envelo ...

** ''

Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Escherichia'' that is commonly fo ...

'' ** '' Salmonella dublin'' ** '' Salmonella typhimurium'' ** '' Shigella'' * Protozoa ** '' Giardia lamblia'' ** '' Eimeria'' species ** ''

Histomonas meleagridis ''Histomonas meleagridis'' is a species of parasite, parasitic protozoan that infects a wide range of birds including chickens, turkey (bird), turkeys, peafowl, quail and pheasants, causing infectious enterohepatitis, or histomoniasis (blackhead ...

Use in humans

In humans, it has been used to treat diarrhoea and enteritis caused by bacterial or protozoan infections, including traveler's diarrhoea,

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

, and bacteremic salmonellosis. In 2002, a journal article suggested its use in treatment of ''H. pylori'' infections in children. Furazolidone has also been used for giardiasis (due to '' Giardia lamblia''), amoebiasis, and shigellosis, although it is not a first-line treatment. From the early 1970s, it has been used in China to treat peptic ulcers, where the mechanism is treatment of the causative '' Helicobacter pylori'' infection.

Use in animals

As a

veterinary medicine Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, medical diagnosis, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all a ...

, furazolidone has been used with some success to treat

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

ids for '' Myxobolus cerebralis'' infections. It has also been used in

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

. 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.

Use in laboratory

It is used to differentiate micrococci and staphylococci.

Mechanism of action

It is believed to work by

crosslinking of DNA In genetics, crosslinking of DNA occurs when various exogenous or endogenous agents react with two nucleotides of DNA, forming a covalent linkage between them. This crosslink can occur within the same strand (intrastrand) or between opposite stran ...

Side effects

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, resulting in tremors, convulsions, peripheral neuritis, gastrointestinal disturbances, and depression of spermatogenesis. Nitrofurans are recognized by FDA as mutagens/carcinogens, and can no longer be used in food-producing animals in the United States as of 1991.

References

{{Monoamine metabolism modulators Acetaldehyde dehydrogenase inhibitors Antibiotics Antiprotozoal agents Nitrofurans Monoamine oxidase inhibitors 2-Oxazolidinones Hydrazones