++
Abbreviations
AIDS: acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
CSF: cerebrospinal fluid
FDA: Food and Drug Administration
GABA: γ-aminobutyric acid
GI: gastrointestinal
G6PD: glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase
HIV: human immunodeficiency virus
IV: intravenous
MIC: minimal inhibitory concentration
MRSA: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
NADP: nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate
NADPH: reduced NADP
NSAID: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug
PABA: para-aminobenzoic acid
PO: by mouth
TMP: trimethoprim
UTI: urinary tract infection
++
History
The sulfonamide drugs were the first effective chemotherapeutic agents used systemically for the prevention and cure of bacterial infections in humans. Investigations in 1932 at the I. G. Farbenindustrie in Germany resulted in the patenting of prontosil and several other azo dyes containing a sulfonamide group. Because synthetic azo dyes had been studied for their action against streptococci, Domagk tested the new compounds and observed that mice with streptococcal and other infections could be protected by prontosil. In 1933, Foerster reported giving prontosil to a 10-month-old infant with staphylococcal septicemia and achieving a dramatic cure. Favorable clinical results with prontosil and its active metabolite, sulfanilamide, in puerperal sepsis and meningococcal infections awakened the medical profession to the new field of antibacterial chemotherapy, and experimental and clinical articles soon appeared in profusion. The development of the carbonic anhydrase inhibitor–type diuretics and the sulfonylurea hypoglycemic agents followed from observations made with the sulfonamide antibiotics. For discovering the chemotherapeutic value of prontosil, Domagk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for 1938 (Lesch, 2007). The advent of penicillin and other antibiotics diminished the usefulness of the sulfonamides, but the introduction of the combination of trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole in the 1970s increased the use of sulfonamides for the prophylaxis and treatment of specific microbial infections.
++
Sulfonamides are derivatives of para-aminobenzenesulfonamide (sulfanilamide; Figure 56–1) and are congeners of PABA. Most of them are relatively insoluble in water, but their sodium salts are readily soluble. The minimal structural prerequisites for antibacterial action are all embodied in sulfanilamide itself. The sulfur must be linked directly to the benzene ring. The para-NH2 group (the N of which has been designated as N4) is essential and can be replaced only by moieties that can be converted in vivo to a free amino group. Substitutions made in the amide NH2 group (position N1) have variable effects on antibacterial activity of the molecule; substitution of heterocyclic aromatic nuclei at N1 yields highly potent compounds.
++
++
Sulfonamides are competitive inhibitors of dihydropteroate synthase, the bacterial enzyme responsible for the incorporation of PABA into dihydropteroic acid, ...