Dennis Kyle, director of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, recently spoke with Science.org about using the drug nitroxoline to treat a rare infection of the central nervous system in a patient caused by the amoeba Balamuthia mandrillaris.
In the summer of 2021, a 54-year-old man was brought to a hospital in Northern California after an unexplained seizure. More testing eventually revealed the infection.
The medical team at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center went on a hunt for a cure, which led them to a study published several years ago in which researchers showed a drug originally developed in Europe to quell urinary tract infections was effective against Balamuthia in the laboratory. They moved to obtain the drug, nitroxoline, from abroad so it could be given for the first time to a Balamuthia patient.
The drug, which is not approved for regular use in the United States, has also been effective against other pathogenic amoebae in laboratory tests, according to the UCSF team. Other researchers call this case a breakthrough in treating brain infection.
“It’s the best that I ever remember seeing with Balamuthia,” Kyle said.
