Abstract
The experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of hyperglycaemia on the trypanocidal efficacy of diminazene aceturate. Groups of alloxan-induced diabetic rats infected with T. brucei and T. congolense were treated with diminazene aceturate, and trypanocidal effects compared with normal non-diabetic controls. Results showed that the prepatent period was shorter in the diabetic (11.25±1.65 days) than non-diabetic-T. congolense (15.0±1.73 days), and also variations in responses to the trypanocidal therapy between the diabetic and non-diabetic groups were detected. Parasite clearance time did not differ significantly between the diabetic and non-diabetic (43.2±8.89 versus 52.8±8.89 hours in T. brucei and 33.6±5.9 versus 36.0±6.93 hours in T. congolense, respectively). The relapse intervals were shorter in the diabetic than non-diabetic (16 days versus 23 days in T. brucei, and 7 days versus 14 days in T. congolense, respectively). Proportion of relapses was greater in the diabetic- (100%) than non-diabetic-T. congolense (66.7%). We also find parasite species-related differences in susceptibility to the trypanocide, with a higher apparent cure rate in the T. brucei than T. congolense group. We conclude from the results of this study that the chemotherapeutic effectiveness of diminazene aceturate may be diminished in patients with diabetes mellitus. Further study is needed to validate this hypothesis.
Highlights
Diabetes mellitus is a serious lifelong metabolic disorder with a rapidly increasing incidence worldwide [13]
Induction of diabetes in rats Significant hyperglycaemia was detected in the rats by day seven after alloxan treatment (Table 1)
Alloxan injection resulted in stable hyperglycaemia throughout the period of this experiment, and it has commonly been used by other workers to render rats diabetic [13,23,24,25,29]
Summary
Diabetes mellitus is a serious lifelong metabolic disorder with a rapidly increasing incidence worldwide [13]. Trypanosomosis is endemic in vast areas of African continent infested by the Glossina vector [15]. It is a very important disease with considerable health and economic impact on animals and humans in these areas [16]. There may be need to administer trypanocidal drug therapy to diabetics who are concurrently infected with trypanosomosis. Cognizant of the involvement of the host immunity in optimizing medical therapies [17,18] we have examined the chemotherapeutic effectiveness of diminazene aceturate - a commonly used trypanocide in Africa, in alloxan-induced diabetic rats artificially infected with Trypanosoma brucei and T. congolense
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