In tests with 18 drug-susceptible strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the MIC at which 50% of the strains are inhibited by levofloxacin (LVFX) was one dilution less than that at which 50% of the strains are inhibited by ofloxacin (OFLO), but the MICs at which 90% of the strains are inhibited were similar. The in vivo activity of LVFX against M. tuberculosis was compared with the activities of isoniazid, OFLO, and sparfloxacin (SPFX). Mice were inoculated intravenously with 1.74 ؋ 10 6 CFU of H37Rv, and treatments began the next day and were carried out six times weekly for 4 weeks. The severity of infection and effectiveness of treatment were assessed by survival rate, spleen weights, gross lung lesions, and enumeration of CFU in the spleen. In terms of CFU counts, the ranking of the anti-M. tuberculosis activities of the treatments used ran in the following order: LVFX (300 mg/kg of body weight) ؍ SPFX (100 mg/kg) > isoniazid > SPFX (50 mg/kg) > OFLO (300 mg/kg) ؍ LVFX (150 mg/kg) > OFLO (150 mg/kg) ؍ LVFX (50 mg/kg). It seems, therefore, that the in vivo activity of LVFX is comparable to that produced by a twofold-greater dosage of OFLO. It is assumed that the maximal clinically tolerated dosage of LVFX is similar to that of OFLO, i.e., 800 mg daily, which is equivalent to 300 mg of LVFX per kg in mice. Because LVFX displayed powerful bactericidal activity, promising effects against human tuberculosis may be achieved if patients are treated with the maximal clinically tolerated dosage of LVFX.Today, one-third of the world's population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and pulmonary tuberculosis is one of the most serious public health problems in both developing and developed countries (17). Furthermore, M. tuberculosis isolates that are resistant to multiple drugs, especially to isoniazid (INH) and rifampin, are increasing (1, 22); for those multidrug-resistant patients, only a limited number of alternative chemotherapeutic regimens are available, none of them is very effective, and the mortality is high (22). Therefore, effective new antituberculosis drugs with bactericidal mechanisms different from those of the presently available agents, i.e., INH, rifampin, pyrazinamide, ethambutol, and streptomycin, are urgently needed.Our previous experiments demonstrated that among the major commercially available fluoroquinolones, ofloxacin (OFLO) seemed to be the only compound active against M. tuberculosis both in vitro and in vivo (19). The MIC of OFLO at which 90% of the clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis, either susceptible or resistant to both INH and rifampin, are inhibited (MIC 90 ) was 2 g/ml on Löwenstein-Jensen medium (19) or 7H11 agar (10), well below its achievable peak level in serum in mice or humans. The activity of OFLO in mice was dosage related: a dosage of 150 mg/kg of body weight six times weekly displayed only a modest degree of activity against M. tuberculosis, whereas the activity of a dosage of 300 mg/kg six times weekly was moderate (12,19). The pharmacokinetic studies t...