Thioridazine: Alternative and Potentially Effective Therapy of the XDRTB Patient

Pulmonary tuberculosis infections caused by multi-drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis has progressed to extensively drug resistant status (XDR-TB). XDR-TB is very difficult to treat successfully and results in high mortality. Globally, XDR-TB is now a major threat, especially to India and countries that were once part of the Soviet Union. There is a potential alternative to current ineffective therapy that is solidly supported by in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo studies. It has reported successful therapies in 10 out of 12 non-responsive XDR-TB patients. That therapy is thioridazine, and it is the purpose of this mini-review to provide the rationale for thioridazine therapy, especially for compassionate reasons, when all other therapies have failed, depicting on extremely poor prognosis.