Peer Review: EVALUATION OF CHRONIC ADMINISTRATION OF THE CONCOMITANT COMBINATION OF ARTEMETHER- LUMEFANTRINE AND CIPROFLOXACIN ON REPRODUCTIVE HORMONES AND PROSTATE SPECIFIC ANTIGEN OF ADULT MALE WISTAR RATS

Abstract

Artemether/Lumefantrine is an artemisinin-based combination therapy recommended by World health organization for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria and ciprofloxacin is a second -generation fluoroquinolone antibiotics used to treat various bacterial infections. This work investigated the possible effect of the concomitant combination of artemether/lumefantrine and ciprofloxacin on selected male reproductive hormone such as Luteinizing Hormone (LH), Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), Testosterone and Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) in adult male Wistar rats. A total of twenty (20) rats were used for the study, and they were randomly allocated into four groups of five rats per group. Group 1 served as control and received distilled water. Group 2 and 3 was administered 20mg/120mg/kg body weight of artemether/lumefantrine and 125mg /kg body weight of ciprofloxacin respectively while group 4 was administered a combination of both. The drugs were administered orally, once daily for 14 days. The rats were sacrificed and blood was collected in plain bottles and allowed to clot, the serum obtained was used for the reproductive hormone assay. The testes were harvested and evaluated histologically for all groups. The obtained data was analyzed using the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and followed by the post hoc turkey’s test. Values at p<0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results showed that there was no statistically significant difference in the serum level of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in all treated groups when compared to the control group. However, in group 2,3 & 4, the serum concentration of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) significantly increased (P <0.05) while the serum concentration of testosterone in group 2,3 and 4 significantly decreased when compared to the control. No histological alteration was found in the treated group when compared to control. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the co-administration of artemether/lumefantrine and ciprofloxacin may adversely affect reproductive functions and lead to infertility but may not lead to prostate cancer in males.