Sulfadoxine (also spelled sulphadoxine) is an ultra-long-lasting

sulfonamide In organic chemistry, the sulfonamide functional group (also spelled sulphonamide) is an organosulfur group with the structure . It consists of a sulfonyl group () connected to an amine group (). Relatively speaking this group is unreactiv ...

used in

combination In mathematics, a combination is a selection of items from a set that has distinct members, such that the order of selection does not matter (unlike permutations). For example, given three fruits, say an apple, an orange and a pear, there are th ...

with

pyrimethamine Pyrimethamine, sold under the brand name Daraprim among others, is a medication used with leucovorin (leucovorin is used to decrease side effects of pyrimethamine; it does not have intrinsic anti-parasitic activity) to treat the parasitic dise ...

to treat

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or deat ...

.Medical Treatment - Sulphadoxine and Pyrimethamine
. It is also used to prevent malaria but due to high levels of sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine resistance, this use has become less common. It is also used, usually in combination with other drugs, to treat or prevent various infections in livestock.

Mechanism of action

Sulfadoxine competitively inhibits

dihydropteroate synthase Dihydropteroate synthase is an enzyme classified under . It produces dihydropteroate in bacteria, but it is not expressed in most eukaryotes including humans. This makes it a useful target for sulfonamide In organic chemistry, the sulfona ...

, interfering with folate synthesis.

References

Anilines Ethers Pyrimidines Sulfonamide antibiotics Dihydropteroate synthetase inhibitors Antimalarial agents {{antibiotic-stub

Mechanism of action

See also

References