Repurpose of Mefloquine-Cotrimoxazole Combination as Anti-Plasmodial Agents in Mice Infected with Pasmodium Berghei

Abstract

The keystone for the treatment of malaria is artemisininbased combination therapy (ACT). The vulnerability of parasites to ACT has, regrettably, declined. Determining new medications or drug combinations that would mitigate parasite resistance is therefore pertinent. Thisstudy assessed the antimalarial property of mefloquinecotrimoxazole in parasitized mice. Thirty adult Swiss albino mice of (18-30g) were grouped into five of 6 mice each. All the mice were inoculated with Plasmodium berghei and orally treated. Group 1 was not treated while groups 2,3, 4 and 5 were treated with chloroquine (10mg/ kg), mefloquine (10mg/kg), cotrimoxazole (10mg/kg) and a combination of mefloquine/cotrimoxazole (10mg/ kg) respectively for five (5) days. The mean survival timewas determined and blood samples were collected and evaluated for percentage parasitemia, hematological and biochemical markers. The results showed that mefloquine/cotrimoxazole combination significantly (p<0.05) reduced percentage parasitemia when compared with single doses of cotrimoxazole and mefloquine. Curatively, cotrimoxazole, mefloquine and mefloquine /cotrimoxazole combination produced 84.90%, 98.95% and 96.96% respectively, whencontrasted with the 90.84% delivered by chloroquine. Suppressively, cotrimoxazole, mefloquine, mefloquine /cotrimoxazole combination, delivered 84.62%, 90.20% and 97.55% respectively. The prophylactic test delivered cotrimoxazole (61.04%), mefloquine (75.23%), mefloquine /cotrimoxazole combination (89.94%) parasitamia inhibition for day 4. When compared to the individual doses of cotrimoxazole and mefloquine,the mefloquine/cotrimoxazole combo significantly (p<0.05) prolonged the mean survival time in the curative,prophylactic, and suppressive tests. The combination also produced significant (p<0.05) reduction in anemia characterized by increased packed cell volume, hemoglobin,red blood cells and decrease in white blood cells, neutrophils lymphocytes and monocytes when compared with single doses of cotrimoxazole and mefloquine respectively. Theresult showed that the levels of aspertate transferase,alanine alanine transferase, alkaline phosphate total protein, total bilirubin, urea, creatinine and uric acid that were slightly altered was curtailed by mefloquine/cotrimoxazole. The study showed that cotrimoxazole can be utilized as an accomplice drug with mefloquine for the management of malaria.