Medicines Rifampicin

Townson, S., Siemienska, J., Hollik, L. and Hutton, D. (1999) The activity of rifampicin, oxytetracycline and chloramphenicol against Onchocerca linealis and O. gutturosa. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 93, 123-124. 

Rifampicin is an antibiotic with a broad spectrum of use that differs from rifamicin SV (32.7.5), which is also used in medicine as an independent drug showing high efficacy when taken internally and having a broad antibacterial spectrum of activities. 

Piper nigrum and Piper longum 1. Amoxicillin 2. Cefotaxime 3. Rifampicin 4. Erythromycin 5. Telithromycin t blood levels of these antibiotics Attributed to inhibition of metabolism and of P-gp, e.g. Piper longum Be aware that toxic effects of antibiotics may occur, particularly when the prescriber/dispenser is unaware of the intake of herbal medicines... 

One real patient brings all these factors together. A middle-aged man in Nepal has had a diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis for about four years. He supports his family by subsistence farming. There are no telephones, and he walks about 10 miles for an unscheduled clinic appointment when his breathlessness interferes too much with his work. At each clinic appointment his pleural effusions are drained (thus improving his breathlessness, which he appreciates), and a small supply of antibiotics is prescribed, probably with little effect (at best) because he cannot afford to pay for the prescriptions that he has been given, even if rifampicin is in stock locally. He cannot be admitted to hospital for more intensive treatment he has no adult children to help him in the fields, and his family would starve. How can the practice of pharmaceutical medicine adapt to this sort of environment ... 

An improvement of medical devices based on bacterial polymers by the encapsulation of different drugs, opens up the wide prospects in applications for these new devices with pharmacological activity in medicine. PHB polymer was used as a drug delivery matrix for sustaining the release of various drugs such as dipyridamole [DP], indomethacin and antibiotics (rifampicin, metronidazole, ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin), anti-inflammatory drugs (flurbiprofen, dexamethasone, prednisolone), and antitumor drugs (paclitaxel) [132]. 

WHO. International pharmacopoeia monograph on rifampicin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide and ethambutol hydrochloride tablets. Working document QAS/04.097 rev Oct 05. Quality Assurance Safety Medicines (QSM), Department of Essential Drugs and Medicines Policy (EDM). WHO Geneva, October, 2005. 

The interactions of herbal medicines with P450 3A4 have already been mentioned and are one of the worst problems with these mixtures [1448]. One of the most studied issues is St. John s wort, which induces P450 3A4 as an agonist of the receptor PXR [1449, 1450]. The induction of P450 3A4 by St. John s wort has been responsible for the loss of the effectiveness of oral contraceptives [83, 1451]. The resulting pregnancies are the resirlt of more rapid ehmi-nation of 17a-ethinylestradiol, a phenomenon previously reported for P450 3A4 induction by rifampicin and barbiturates [26, 82, 90]. 

RUC 12] Ruckh T., Oldinski R., Carroll D. et al, Antimicrobial effects of nano fiber poly(caprolactone) tissue scaffolds releasing rifampicin , Journal of Materials Science Materials in Medicine, vol. 23, pp. 1411-1420, 2012. 

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