Rifaximin - another C-Diff drug
Emerging Therapies in the Treatment of C difficile-Associated Disease: Rifaximin
Comment: Readers .. blogging this so I have a diary of sorts of what I am taking. I picked up 56 of these today (23 days worth). Why the hamster? Check out the third comment below!
Comment: Readers .. blogging this so I have a diary of sorts of what I am taking. I picked up 56 of these today (23 days worth). Why the hamster? Check out the third comment below!
Salix: Xifaxan
ReplyDeleteAnother reference:
ReplyDeleteRifaximin is quickly becoming yet another useful medication in the treatment of C difficile and like vancomycin is not absorbed from the bowel. It is similar in its action to vancomycin, has high in-vitro activity against C difficile and achieves high faecal concentrations after oral administration. It can be also successful in those patients who had failed metronidazole and vancomycin as well as combinations of vancomycin and rifampicin
Works on hamsters ..
ReplyDeleteComparative Efficacies of Rifaximin and Vancomycin for Treatment of Clostridium difficile-Associated Diarrhea and Prevention of Disease Recurrence in Hamsters
We sought to determine the efficacy of rifaximin, a novel nonabsorbed antibiotic, in the hamster model of C. difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD). Hamsters received clindamycin subcutaneously and 24 h later were infected by gavage with one of two C. difficile strains: a reference strain (VPI 10463) and a current epidemic strain (BI17). Vancomycin (50 mg/kg of body weight) or rifaximin (100, 50, and 25 mg/kg) were then administered orally for 5 days beginning either on the same day as infection (prevention) or 24 h later (treatment). Therapeutic effects were assessed by weight gain, histology, and survival. We found that rifaximin was as effective as vancomycin in the prevention and treatment of colitis associated with the two C. difficile strains that we examined. There was no relapse after treatment with vancomycin or rifaximin in hamsters infected with the BI17 strain. Hamsters infected with the VPI 10463 strain and treated with rifaximin did not develop relapsing infection within a month of follow-up, whereas the majority of vancomycin-treated animals relapsed (0% versus 75%, respectively; P < 0.01). In conclusion, rifaximin was found to be an effective prophylactic and therapeutic agent for CDAD in hamsters and was not associated with disease recurrence.