Nitazoxanide kills replicating and nonreplicating Mycobacterium tuberculosis and evades resistance.
de Carvalho LP, Lin G, Jiang X, Nathan C.
We report here that nitazoxanide (NTZ) and its active metabolite kill replicating and nonreplicating M. tuberculosis at low microg/mL levels. NTZ appears to evade resistance, as we were unable to recover resistant colonies, using up to 10(12) colony forming units. Therefore, NTZ is a novel lead compound that kills replicating and nonreplicating M. tuberculosis by a novel mechanism of action, which appears to bypass the development of resistance.