Varying Effects of Common Tuberculosis Drugs on Enhancing Clofazimine Activity in vitro

Clofazimine (CFZ), originally developed as an anti-tuberculosis (TB) drug in the 1950s 1, is commonly used to treat leprosy and also nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections. 2 Although CFZ has good activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, it was not used in the treatment of pulmonary TB mainly because it had the side effect of skin discoloration and there were other more effective drugs like isoniazid (INH), rifampin (RIF) and pyrazinamide (PZA) already available for the treatment of TB. 2 However, the increasing emergence of multi-drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) has revived interest in the use of CFZ to treat MDR-TB. 2,3\n\nAlthough resistance to CFZ has been shown to be mediated by mutations in Rv0678,4,5 Rv1979c, or Rv2535c (PepQ),5 the mode of action of CFZ has remained poorly understood. CFZ appears to hav ...