probenecid
Meaning of probenecid: Probenecid lowers uric acid levels by blocking its reabsorption in the kidney and separately raises blood levels of certain antibiotics.
Definition of probenecid
Probenecid is a medication that acts on the kidney to change how certain substances are handled during urine formation. Its best known use is lowering blood levels of uric acid by blocking the kidney's reabsorption of urate back into the bloodstream, which increases the amount removed in urine and helps prevent the crystal deposits responsible for gout attacks.
Probenecid also blocks the kidney's active secretion of certain organic acids and acidic drugs, including some antibiotics such as penicillin. Historically, this property was used to conserve limited antibiotic supplies by keeping blood levels of the antibiotic higher for longer, and the same mechanism is still occasionally used today when a sustained antibiotic level is wanted.
Because probenecid works by altering kidney handling of other substances, it can raise or lower blood levels of several other medications, a factor considered when it is prescribed alongside other drugs.
Used in a sentence
Probenecid was prescribed to help lower the patient's uric acid levels between gout flares.
Good to know
Probenecid is prescribed for two distinct purposes, lowering uric acid in gout and boosting antibiotic levels in the blood, mechanisms that both rely on its effect on kidney tubule transport.