Improved Efficacy of Cotrimoxazole with Medicinal Synthetic Aluminum-Magnesium Silicate for Effective Treatment of Trypanosomosis

Aims: The mechanism of Cotrimoxazole (Sulfamethoxazole and Trimethoprim combination) as an anti-bacterial drug is inhibition of Folic Acid but its anti-trypanocidal efficacy has not been investigated though Trypanosomes also require Folic Acid for replication. Development of resistance by Trypanosomes against drugs, frequent relapse infections and toxicity of most trypanocides demand that the search for new Trypanocidal drugs be continuous. Aluminum magnesium silicate (AMS) and its formulation named Medicinal Synthetic AMS (MSAMS) have been reported to stabilize other medicines. Stabilizing medicines improves the length of time they remain at high bioavailability and when drugs remain at high concentration in plasma for a long time, their efficacies improve. Improving the anti-folic acid efficacy of Cotrimoxazole may deny Trypanosomes Folic Acid to the extent that their replication could be inhibited.

Study Design: Fifteen West African Dwarf (WAD) sheep allotted to 3 groups of 5 animals each were used. One group was infected and treated, the second group was infected and untreated while the third group was uninfected and untreated.

Place and Duration of Study: the study was conducted in the Department of Veterinary Medicine, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike/ for a period of 7 months.

Methodology: Five (5) Trypanosoma b. brucei infected sheep (WAD) were treated with Cotrimoxazole MSAMS formulation at dose of 120mg/kg orally for 5 days while another group was left untreated.

Results: Mean parasitaemia of 80.49±7.56 million parasite per ml of blood was recorded just before commencement of the treatment but nine days after treatment with the Cotrimoxazole-MSAMS formulation the parasitaemia of the treated group reduced (P≤ 0.05) from 2.25±1.50 in the control to 0.00± 0.00). Cotrimoxazole-MSAMS terminated parasitaemia in Trypanosoma b. brucei infected WAD sheep 9 days post-treatment. Relapse infection was not observed up to 100 days post-treatment.

Conclusion: MSAMS enhanced the anti-folic acid efficacy of Cotrimoxazole so that it cleared Trypanosome parasitaemia and there was no relapse.