Abstract
Abstract
The drawback of limited options in the fight against helminth infections caused by roundworms, hookworms and threadworms has remained a major concern in healthcare delivery especially in resource-poor nations. And the success of drug repurposing both in anthelmintic and other treatment landscape has made the choice of this technique in anthelmintic chemotherapy research compelling. We investigated the efficacy of doxycycline and mepacrine against three selected geohelminths using Fecal Egg Count Reduction (FECR) as a metric. Ethical approval was obtained from Abia State University Teaching Hospital Ethics Committee and a randomized controlled trial was conducted on a total of thirty two (32) volunteers diagnosed egg positive for the investigated helminths and randomly allocated to (1) mepacrine (2) doxycycline (3) doxycycline + mepacrine equal combination and (4) albendazole treatment groups in respective doses of100 mg BID 3/7 for mepacrine and doxycycline; 100 mg each of doxycycline + mepacrine STAT and 400 mg albendazole STAT as positive control. The fecal egg count reduction rates for ascaris, hookworm and strongyloide were determined using the modified Mc master method and the average FECR of 76.0±14.4;79.7±10.0;81.0±5.9and 90.0±5.8% were obtained for mepacrine, doxycycline, doxycycline + mepacrineand albendazole respectively. The study identified doxycycline and mepacrine as potential alternative anthelmintic agents especially as combination therapy. Larger scale clinical trial is strongly recommended.
Keywords
Anthelmintic Combination Doxycycline Mepacrine Efficacy
How to Cite
Agube, A. C., Uzochukwu, I. C. & Ajaghaku, D. L., (2023) “Evaluation of Anthelmintic Efficacy of a Combination of Doxycycline and Mepacrine”, British Journal of Pharmacy 8(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.5920/bjpharm.1019
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