Quinacrine 83-89-6

Uses

Its main effects are as an antiprotozoal, antirheumatic and an intrapleural sclerosing agent. Antiprotozoal use include targeting Giardiasis, where quinacrine is indicated as a primary agent for patients with metronidazole-resistant giardiasis and patients who should not receive or can not tolerate metronidazole. Giardiasis that is very resistant may even require a combination of quinacrine and metronidazole. indicated in the treatment of discoid and subcutaneous lupus erythematosus, particularly in patients unable to take chloroquine derivatives. , and has been researched as an inhibitor of phospholipase A2. Scientists at Bayer in Germany first synthesised Quinacrine in 1931 and subsequently marketed as Mepacrine or Atebrine. The product was one of the first synthetic substitutes for quinine although later superseded by chloroquine.

Anthelmintics

In addition it has been used for treating tapeworm infections.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Quinacrine has been shown to bind to the prion protein and prevent the formation of prion aggregates in vitro,and full clinical trials of its use as a treatment for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease are under way in the United Kingdom and the United States. Small trials in Japan have reported improvement in the condition of patients with the disease,although other reports have shown no significant effect,and treatment of scrapie in mice and sheep has also shown no effect. Possible reasons for the lack of an in-vivo effect include inefficient penetration of the blood brain barrier, as well as the existence of drug-resistant prion proteins that increase in number when selected for by treatment with quinacrine.

Quinacrine non-surgical sterilization for women (QS)

The use of quinacrine for non-surgical sterilization for women has also been researched. This method , was developed by Zipper et al. who reported a first year failure rate of 3. 1%. However, despite a multitude clinical studies on the use of quinacrine and female sterilization, no randomized, controlled trials have been reported to date and there is some controversy over its use. quinacrine sterilization (QS) is potentially safer than surgical sterilization.