ArticleThe Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy2025
Repurposing zidovudine and 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine as antibiotic drugs made possible by synergy with both trimethoprim and the mitochondrial toxicity-reducing agent uridine.
Article in The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Repurposing trifluridine as an anti-Staphylococcus aureus agent targeting virulence factor staphyloxanthin and attachment genes.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Beyond new pills: integrative strategies to overcome multidrug-resistant bacteria.Archives of microbiology · 2026Review
- Pyrimidine nucleoside: inspiration for novel antimicrobial agent.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Prediction of suitable drug for keloid through analytic hierarchy process and topological indices.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Uridine, a Therapeutic Nucleoside, Exacerbates Alcoholic Liver Disease via SRC Kinase Activation: A Network Toxicology and Molecular Dynamics Perspective.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesThe increasing frequency of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections is a major public health challenge, and new antibiotic drugs are urgently needed. A rapid solution to the problem is to repurpose clinically approved compounds with antibacterial properties, such as the nucleoside analogues zidovudine (azidothymidine) or 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine. Here we report the in vitro and in vivo antibacterial properties of double and triple combinations of azidothymidine or 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine with uridine and/or trimethoprim.
methodsWe determined MICs of azidothymidine and 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine, alone or combined with uridine and/or trimethoprim, against a selection of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. We also measured MICs of a selection of antibiotics of different classes as a function of uridine concentration. The efficacy of azidothymidine and 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine with uridine and/or trimethoprim was measured in a murine peritonitis infection model.
resultsThe addition of uridine enhanced the in vitro antibacterial activity of azidothymidine and 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine, against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, respectively. Uridine also enhanced the in vitro antibacterial activity of azidothymidine/trimethoprim and 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine/trimethoprim combinations. Triple combinations containing azidothymidine, trimethoprim and uridine, showed antibacterial synergy against Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae) whereas the 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine, trimethoprim and uridine combination showed synergy against the Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus. The positive effect of uridine on the efficacy of azidothymidine/trimethoprim combination was also observed in vivo in a murine E. coli peritonitis model.
conclusionsTriple combinations of these clinically approved compounds warrant further investigations as therapies to combat antibiotic-resistant infections.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.