The medicine Flucytosine is an antifungal agent. It is a white to off-white crystalline powder, and fungal organisms take this drug via the enzyme cytosine permease. Inside the fungal cell, Flucytosine is rapidly converted to fluorouracil by the enzyme cytosine deaminase. Fluorouracil exerts its antifungal activity through the subsequent conversion into several active metabolites, which inhibit protein synthesis by being falsely incorporated into fungal RNA or interfere with the biosynthesis of fungal DNA by inhibiting the enzyme thymidylate synthetase.
Healthcare professionals recommend this medicine in treating patients with severe infections caused by susceptible strains of Candida and Cryptococcus.
Dosage
The medicine Flucytosine 500 mg comes in tablets of 500 mg to administer orally via the mouth. The active ingredient in the tablets is Flucytosine with inactive ingredients corn starch, lactose, and talc.
Healthcare professionals recommend the usual dosage of Flucytosine is 50 to 150 mg/kg/day and administered in divided doses at 6-hour intervals.
Nausea or vomiting may be reduced or avoided if the capsules are given a few times over 15 minutes.
Side-effects
The common side-effects of Flucytosine are:
- loss of appetite
- diarrhea
- vomiting
- psychosis
- bone marrow suppression
Precautions
- Before therapy with Flucytosine is administered, one should determine electrolytes (because of hypokalemia) and the hematologic and renal status of the patient. Close monitoring of the patient during therapy is essential.
- One should administer Flucytosine with extreme caution to patients with impaired renal function. Since Flucytosine is excreted primarily by the kidneys, renal impairment may lead to the accumulation of the drug.
- Since renal impairment can cause progressive drug accumulation, one should monitor blood concentrations and kidney function during therapy.
- Cytosine arabinoside, a cytostatic agent, has been reported to inactivate the antifungal activity of Flucytosine by competitive inhibition. Drugs that impair glomerular filtration may prolong the biological half-life of Flucytosine.
- Perform blood counts and liver function tests (aspartate aminotransferase [ASAT], alanine aminotransferase [ALAT], alkaline phosphatases) along with regular monitoring, especially at the start of therapy.
- The 5 flucytosine must not be used during pregnancy and in women of childbearing age without effective contraception unless required in case of life‐threatening infections, and an apt therapeutic alternative is absent.
Price of Flucytosine
You can buy Flucytosine from India at reasonable cost from various generic medicine suppliers. The Indian Pharma is one such certified generic medicine supplier, supplying quality medicines all over the world.
