Inhibition of Rodent Malaria in Mice by Rifampicin

A NUMBER of rifamycin compounds have been found to be active against Gram-positive—and to a lesser extent against Gram-negative—bacteria, in vitro and in vivo , when administered parenterally. More recently rifampicin has been found to be active orally 1–5 . Several investigators have studied the action of the rifamycins on protein synthesis and have come to the conclusion that in Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis the primary effect of the rifamycin is the inhibition of DNA-directed RNA synthesis through the inhibition of RNA polymerase action 6–12 . Rifampicin has also been found to be active against some viruses 13 . Moss et al. 14 reported that rifampicin was a specific inhibitor of vaccinia virus assembly.