Emerging Infectious Diseases (Jan 2023)

Successful Treatment of Balamuthia mandrillaris Granulomatous Amebic Encephalitis with Nitroxoline

  • Natasha Spottiswoode,
  • Douglas Pet,
  • Annie Kim,
  • Katherine Gruenberg,
  • Maulik Shah,
  • Amrutha Ramachandran,
  • Matthew T. Laurie,
  • Maham Zia,
  • Camille Fouassier,
  • Christine L. Boutros,
  • Rufei Lu,
  • Yueyuan Zhang,
  • Venice Servellita,
  • Andrew Bollen,
  • Charles Y. Chiu,
  • Michael R. Wilson,
  • Liza Valdivia,
  • Joseph L. DeRisi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2901.221531
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 29, no. 1
pp. 197 – 201

Abstract

Read online

A patient in California, USA, with rare and usually fatal Balamuthia mandrillaris granulomatous amebic encephalitis survived after receiving treatment with a regimen that included the repurposed drug nitroxoline. Nitroxoline, which is a quinolone typically used to treat urinary tract infections, was identified in a screen for drugs with amebicidal activity against Balamuthia.

Keywords