Pyrithiamine (hydrobromide)

Pyrithiamine is the pyridine analog of thiamine that prevents growth of organisms that require intact thiamine. [1] It inhibits the growth of bacterial and fungal species at a pyrithiamine:thiamine ratio of 10:1 in growth media and induces symptoms of thiamine deficiency in mice at a dietary ratio of 3:1. These effects are reversible with addition of sufficient thiamine in all species. Pyrithiamine inhibits the formation of cocarboxylase from thiamine in chicken blood in a dose-dependent manner. [2] It has been used to induce thiamine deficiency in various disease models, including rat models of alcoholism and diencephalic amnesia, to study the effects of thiamine deficiency on disease pathology.[3] [4]