In 1990, Voriconazole was patented and 12 years later it was approved in the United States in order to the medical uses. The medication is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health system.
Uses of Voriconazole:
Voriconazole 200 mg basically is the triazole family of medications, which functions by affecting the fungal metabolism and fungal cell membranes.
This is basically recommended for the treatment of invasive aspergillosis, candidiasis and fungal infections caused by Scedosporium and Fusarium species. Immunocompromised patients are more likely to get such infections, including those people who are undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplant (BMT), also those patients who carried hematologic cancers or those who undergo organ transplants.
Voriconazole Injection is also recommended for the prevention of fungal infection in people as they undergo BMT.
This antifungal medication can be also used in the treatment of CNS fungal infections transmitted by epidural injection of contaminated steroids.
Side Effects of Voriconazole:
Patients with Voriconazole Injection may experience some very common adverse effects, which are basically occurring in more than 10% of people. These adverse effects include headaches, trouble breathing, peripheral edema, diarrhea, nausea, rashes, fever, vomiting and abdominal pain.
And some common side effects of voriconazole 200, which mostly appears in between 1 and 10% of people, are as follows:
- Gingivitis
- Sinus infections
- Low blood sugar
- Depression
- Hallucinations
- Anxiety and insomnia
- Agitation
- Confusion
- Fainting and Tremor
- Weakness, tingling
- Sleepiness & Dizziness
- Irregular heart beats
- Slow or fast heart beats
- Low blood pressure
- Pulmonary edema
- Inflamed lips
- Swollen face
- Stomach upset
- Constipation
- Jaundice and Hair loss
- Flaky skin, Itchiness and Red skin
- Back pain, Chest pain, and Chills
- Acute respiratory distress syndrome
- Low numbers of white and red blood cells
- Reduced amount of potassium and sodium
Voriconazole I.V. should be administered by intravenous infusion. It is a single-dose,
unpreserved product. Vials contain voriconazole 200mg (lyophilized) in order to reconstitute with Water for Injection to produce a solution.
This triazole antifungal agent is well absorbed orally with a bioavailability of 96%, which allows patients to be switched between intravenous and oral administration. This antiviral may be safely administered with following drugs:
- Cimetidine
- Ranitidine
- Indinavir
- Macrolide antibiotics
- mycophenolate
- Digoxin and Prednisolone
How Does Voriconazole Injection Works:
Voriconazole is a kind of triazole antifungal agent. The major action of this antifungal is that it inhibits the fungal cytochrome P-450-mediated 14 alpha-lanosterol demethylation, an essential step in fungal ergosterol biosynthesis. The accumulated 14 alpha-methyl sterols (basically an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction) correlates with the subsequent loss of ergosterol in the fungal cell wall and it could be responsible for the antifungal activity of voriconazole.
In observations it has been shown that the Voriconazole is more selective for fungal cytochrome P-450 enzymes in comparison to the various mammalian cytochrome P-450 enzyme systems.
Voriconazole 200 mg has been shown to be active against most strains of the following microorganisms, both in vitro as well as in clinical infections.
Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus niger, Candida tropicalis, Candida albicans, Candida krusei, Candida glabrata, Candida parapsilosis, Fusarium spp and Scedosporium apiospermum.
