Therapeutic properties and serum iron in <i>T. brucei</i> infected rats treated with amodiaquine and mefloquine

Abstract

Serum iron was monitored in Trypanosoma brucei-infected rats treated with Amodiaquine and mefloquine antimalarials as the infection progressed. The chemotherapeutic properties of the drugs against African sleeping sickness were also assessed. Results show gradual reduction in the levels of serum iron in the infected but treated rats as the infection progressed. Results also show that reduction in serum iron level is more pronounced in amodiaquine treated but uninfected rats than the mefloquine treated rats. Serum level in infected but not treated rats increased steadily from the day of infection. For prophylactic treatments of infected rat, amodiaquine extended the lifespan of the rats for 14 days while mefloquine extended it for 7 days. For early stage treatment, amodiaquine and mefloquine extended life span for 7 and 4 days respectively while late stage treatment the extensions were 2 and 1 day respectively. Results suggest that these antimalarials especially amodiaquine could be useful in the clinical management of African sleeping sickness and that this may be through reduction of blood iron level, a situation that can inhibit ribonucleotide reductase of the proliferating parasites.

EFFECTS OF DIETARY VITAMINS C AND E ON BODY TEMPERATURE, BODY WEIGHT AND HAEMATOLOGICAL PARAMETRES IN WISTAR RATS INFECTED WITH T. bruceibrucei (Federe strain) DURING THE HOT RAINY SEASON

“…However, weight loss recorded in the group of animals treated with combination of vitamins C and E was not significant, this corroborates several studies reports that overall antioxidant potential is possibly more efficient and crucial than single antioxidant nutrients (German and Traber, 2001;Umar et al, 2007;Umar et al, 2010). Haematological parametres such as RBC, PCV, WBC, have been shown to be important indices of livestock health and production status (Oyewale and Fajimi, 1988), this is further supported by the report of Ekanem et al (2005; which documented that the measurement of anaemia gives a reliable indication of the disease status and productive performance of trypanosome infected animals. PCV is a measure of anaemia, and the reduction in PCV indicator observed in this study particularly in group B suggests that the anaemia in this infection is haemolytic and that it involves a significant increase in the rate of erythrocyte destruction.…”