Abstract

Artemether and nevirapine are effective drugs used in the treatment of malaria and as part of antiretroviral therapy, respectively in many parts of the world. However, concomitant use of these drugs may pose an adverse drug interaction that may alter their pharmacological effects. In this study, possible effect(s) of artemether-nevirapine co-administration on haematological indices in both normal and immune-compromised rats were investigated. Animals were divided into 6 groups of 6 rats per group. Groups 4, 5 and 6 received 30 mg/kg of nevirapine daily for 21 days. In addition, groups 5 and 6 received 5 and 10 mg/kg artemether, respectively while rats in groups 2 and 3 received artemether 5 and 10 mg/kg, respectively from day 15, for 7 days. This was repeated in immunosuppressed rats with an additional group receiving only dexamethasone and 3% v/v Tween 80. Rats in all groups received dexamethasone (20 mg/kg) and booster doses of 10 and 5 mg/kg on days 8 and 15, respectively, except the control group. All drugs administration were through intraperitoneal route. Data were analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by Dunnett’s post hoc test. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Artemether-nevirapine co-administration caused a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in packed cell volume (PCV), red blood cell (RBC), haemoglobin, lymphocyte as well as an increase in neutrophils in both normal and immunosuppressed rats. Findings from this study showed that concomitant administration of artemether and nevirapine altered PCV, RBC, haemoglobin, WBC, neutrophil and lymphocyte of both normal and immunosuppressed rats and this may induce some adverse effects on blood parameters.

Key words: Artemether, nevirapine, haematology, immunosuppression, rats.