Effect of mefloquine administered orally at single

Authors: Shuhua Xiao Jingyan Mei Peiying Jiao

Publish Date: 2010/10/05

Volume: 108, Issue: 2, Pages: 399-406

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Abstract

The purpose of the study is to explore the efficacy of mefloquine administered orally at single multiple doses or in combination with artesuante artemether or praziquantel in mouse—Schistosoma japonicum model A total of 205 mice were divided into 4 batches and each batch of mice was infected percutaneously with 40 S japonicum cercariae for 35 days The infected mice were treated orally with mefloquine at single doses multiple daily doses or combined with artesunate artemether or praziquantel while infected but untreated mice served as control All treated animals were killed 4 weeks posttreatment for assessment of effect When infected mice were treated orally with mefloquine at single or multiple daily doses under the same total dose levels the tendency to decrease the efficacy was seen Particularly when a lower single dose of 100 mg/kg was divided equally into five daily doses of 20 mg/kg the efficacy decreased statistically significant P  005 ie the total worm and female worm reductions of 679 and 734 decreased to 313 and 303 respectively In infected mice treated with mefloquine or artesuante at a single dose of 100 mg/kg a moderate effect against schistosomes was observed No further significant reduction of total and female worm burdens was seen when the two drugs combined together at the same dose level On the other hand administration of mefloquine combined with artesunate at single dose of 50 mg/kg which exhibited no effect against schistosomes resulted in significant reduction of total and female worm burdens in comparison with the groups treated with mefloquine and artesunate alone at the same dose level Similar results were observed in treatment of infected mice with mefloquine in combination with artemether at the smaller dose of 50 mg/kg The total worm burden was significantly lower than that of control and the female worm burden was also significant lower than that of groups treated with mefloquine and artemether alone Interestingly in administration of mefloquine 100 mg/kg combined with artemether 100 mg/kg to the infected mice all female worms were killed and the total worm burden was also statistically significant lower than that of groups treated with either drug alone Finally when infected mice were treated with mefloquine combined with prazqiuatel at single dose of 50 mg/kg no apparent improvement in efficacy was seen Administration of mefloquine 100 mg/kg combined with praziquantel 100 mg/kg only the difference of female worm burdens between praziquantel group and combined treatment group was statistically significant The results indicate that under the same dose level of mefloquine the efficacy of single dose is superior to that of multiple daily doses mefloquine combined with artesunate or artemether at an invalid or moderate effective dose may show synergistic effect especially the effect against female worms no prominent synergistic effect is observed when the similar dose level of mefloquine in combination with praziquantel

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